The Melk Concentration Camp Memorial marks the site of a subcamp of Mauthausen, where prisoners were forced into brutal labour during the Second World War. It is a difficult but important stop in a town more often associated with the golden baroque spectacle of Melk Abbey.
The memorial gives necessary historical weight to the visit. Come respectfully and allow time for the contrast to register: the same small Danube town holds both one of Austria's great monastic landmarks and a place tied to Nazi terror.