Vienna - Morzinplatz

Shortly after Austria was incorporated in Germany in March 1938, SS chief Heinrich Himmler and his SS arrived in Austria. In Vienna, the Gestapo confiscated hotel Metropole at Morzinplatz from its Jewish owners and established its headquarters. When the workforce was at its largest, it amounted about 900 people, the majority of whom were recruited from the Austrian police. Only the Berlin Gestapo was larger in number, which shows how extensive the Gestapo was in Austria. The head of the Gestapo in Vienna was SS-Brigadeführer Franz Josef Huber. As head of the Gestapo, he bears a great responsibility for the murder of some 70,000 of the Jews in Austria. It is estimated that about 50,000 people were taken to Metropol where they were subjected to interrogation, often under threat, ill-treatment and torture. Many of them were sent to prisons or concentration camps in occupied Europe. The prisoners who were subjected to interrogation were led through a back door down to the interrogation rooms and the cells in the basement. In 1945, the hotel was destroyed during an allied bombing raid. After the war, the ruins were demolished and removed.