Active Members

Mag. Reinhard Kaspar

President

Mr. Reinhard Kaspar is an active GMC member since 1995 and was elected President of the GMC on December 1, 2023.

Since 1995 he was active in organizing many international commemorations at the Gusen Memorial in Langenstein.

His motivation for working in the GMC has always been to be part of the international “Gusen family” and to clearly state “never again” together with others.

He got to know many survivors and their families for many decades because he lives in the parish of St. Georgen/Gusen since he was born there.

SR Martha Gammer

Vice-President

Mrs. Martha Gammer is a GMC founding member and active since 1985.

For many years she served the GMC as president and organized and moderated countless commemorations at the Gusen Memorial in Langenstein.

As a resident of St. Georgen and leading member of the local history association, the Gusen history too became early one main topic in her local historical research work.

Contacts to survivors opened her heart to care for the cruel and totally forgotten Gusen death camps in Austria.

Her diverse language skills were a key function in bringing the international “Gusen family” with members from all parts of the world together.

Mag. Julia Mayr

Secretary

Ms. Julia Mayr is an active GMC member since 2013.

Ms. Mayr also helps to plan events and commemorations and is involved in the further development of the KL Gusen memorial sites. She also gives guided tours in Gusen and the “Bergkristall” tunnels.

Her motivation for working in this fields is her belief that the past is related to the present and is therefore a key element of todays and future society. She also emphasizes that history must be remembered in order not to be forgotten, which makes working with young people an essential part of her work.

She also is the network coordinator for ERINNERN:AT in Upper Austria.

Hannes Gammer

Deputy Secretary

Mr. Hannes Gammer, is an active GMC member since 2008.

He served the GMC as vice-president from 2008 to 2023 and especially supported his wife Martha Gammer in these years to carry the burden of leading the GMC.

Mr. Gammer was also a member of the municipal council of St. Georgen from 1985 to 2023 and served as a political advisor to the GMC, particularly with regard to the political communities in the region that were affected by the former KL Gusen concentration camps.

Since he grew up in the region during and after the war years, he still has personal memories including the Nazi period and the years of the Soviet occupation in the St. Georgen-Gusen-Mauthausen region.

Lena-Victoria Patrejko

International Coordinator

Ms. Lena-Victoria Patrejko is an active GMC member since 2020.

Ms. Patrejko serves the GMC as social media specialist and liaison to Poland. In addition she´s very active in organizing the international commemorations and to make translations necessary for our work.

Her motivation to serve the GMC is to raise awareness in the region and beyond about the atrocities that happened in the former KL Gusen complex.

As the youngest active GMC member she´s very committed to bring new ideas and impulses into the GMC to interest especially the next generation about the significance of the GMC´s work.

Bernhard Mühleder

Commemorations Coordinator

Mr. Bernhard Mühleder is an active GMC member since 2010.

As professional educator at the Mauthausen and Gusen Memorials he´s our liaison to the Mauthausen Memorial and key coordinator for different commemorative events.

As professional he is currently also involved in the extension of the Gusen Memorial sites by the Mauthausen Memorial.

His motivation to serve the GMC too is to contribute to preserving the memory of the victims of the Nazi regime and to come to terms with history in order to shape a better future. It is furthermore a personal concern of him to take responsibility and to resist repression and forgetting through a public culture of remembrance and to actively counteract right-wing extremism in the present and future.

Prof. Rudolf A. Haunschmied

Treasurer

Mr. Rudolf A. Haunschmied is a GMC founding member and active since 1985.

For nearly four decades he is a pioneer in researching the once lost history of the former St. Georgen-Gusen-Mauthausen complex of concentration camps.

He´s dedicated to safeguard the memory on more than 40.000 forgotten victims of this once biggest and most inhumane death camps on Austrian territory.

His most important concern is that the history of this once giant concentration camp complex is further researched and that the tens of thousands of victims of Gusen get remembered in the future worldwide by official institutions too.