Special Exhibition: "1945 - End of the war in Ausseerland"

In the spring of 1945, the imminent defeat of the National Socialist Reich by the approaching Allied armies was obvious. For various reasons, many people made their way to Ausseerland, the heart of the supposed “Alpine fortress”, which had been spared from bombing. Some of the National Socialist elite also found their way here. The organizer of the extermination of the Jews, Adolf Eichmann, retreated to Altaussee with part of his Einsatzkommando , where the head of the Reich Main Security Office, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, also arrived and gave his final orders. While several Eastern European governments in exile were also quartered in Altaussee, the Joseph Goebbels family repeatedly stayed in Gößl, not far from Lake Toplitz. This is also where the biggest counterfeiting operation of all time came to an end. The exhibition traces this mysterious chapter from the final phase of the Third Reich. It also tells of the last remnants of SS troops in the mountains, the first year of the American occupation in overpopulated Ausseerland, the post-war actions of the “Ausseerland Freedom Movement” and much more.