<figure id="attachment_3287281" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3287281" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-3287281" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/c69dc9b8-afp__20260221__982a49h__v1__midres__austriahistorypoliticspolice_cropped_1.webp" alt="" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3287281" class="wp-caption-text">A woman walks past the birth house of former German dictator Adolf Hitler, which has been turned into a police station, in Braunau am Inn, Austria. (AFP pic)</figcaption></figure>
BRAUNAU AM INN: Turning the house where Adolf Hitler was born into a police station has raised mixed emotions in his Austrian hometown.
&#8220;It&#8217;s a double-edged sword,&#8221; said Sibylle Treiblmaier, outside the house in the town of Braunau am Inn on the border with Germany.
&#8220;While it might discourage far-right extremists from gathering at the site, it could have &#8216;been used better or differently&#8217;,&#8221; the 53-year-old office assistant told AFP.
The government wants to &#8220;neutralise&#8221; the site and passed a law in 2016 to take control of the dilapidated building from its private owner.
Austria &#8211; which was annexed by Hitler&#8217;s Germany in 1938 &#8211; has repeatedly been criticised in the past for not fully acknowledging its responsibility in the Holocaust.
The far-right Freedom Party, founded by former Nazis, is ahead in the polls after getting the most votes in a national election for the first time in 2024, though it failed to form a government.
Last year, two streets in Braunau am Inn commemorating Nazis were renamed after years of complaints by activists.
&#8216;Problematic&#8217;
The house where Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, and lived for a short period of his early life, is right in the centre of town on a narrow shop-lined street.
A memorial stone in front reads: &#8220;For Peace, Freedom and Democracy. Never Again Fascism. Millions of Dead Warn&#8221;.
When AFP visited this week, workers were putting the finishing touches to the renovated facade.
&#8220;Officers are scheduled to move in during &#8216;the second quarter of 2026&#8217;,&#8221; the interior ministry said.
However, for author Ludwig Laher, a member of the Mauthausen Committee Austria that represents Holocaust victims, &#8220;a police station is problematic, as the police&#8230; are obliged, in every political system, to protect what the state wants&#8221;.
An earlier idea to turn the house into a place where people would come together to discuss peace-building had &#8220;received a lot of support&#8221;, he told AFP.
Jasmin Stadler, a 34-year-old shop owner and Braunau native, said it would have been interesting to put Hitler&#8217;s birth in the house in a &#8220;historic context&#8221;, explaining more about the house.
She also slammed the €20-million (US$24-million) cost of the rebuild.
&#8216;Bit of calm&#8217; 
However, others are in favour of the redesign of the house, which many years ago was rented by the interior ministry and housed a centre for people with disabilities before it fell into disrepair.
Wolfgang Leithner, a 57-year-old electrical engineer, said turning it into a police station would &#8220;hopefully bring a bit of calm&#8221;, avoiding it becoming a shrine for far-right extremists.
&#8220;It makes sense to use the building and give it to the police, to the public authorities,&#8221; he said.
The office of Braunau&#8217;s conservative mayor declined an AFP request for comment.
Throughout Austria, debate on how to address the country&#8217;s Holocaust history has repeatedly flared.
Some 65,000 Austrian Jews were killed and 130,000 forced into exile during Nazi rule.

MatchPoint Times

Austria turns Hitler’s home into a police station

Turning the house where Adolf Hitler was born into a police station has raised mixed emotions in his hometown.

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