An Austrian regional hospital has fired a chief physician after he allegedly said that “only Auschwitz would help” in the case of an overweight patient, prompting staff complaints about Nazi language, bullying, and a climate of fear.
The incident occurred at the Landesklinikum Horn, a regional hospital in the Waldviertel area of Lower Austria. According to local outlet MeinBezirk and several national media, the doctor, a department head, is said to have told colleagues during an internal meeting about a patient that “nur mehr Auschwitz würde hier helfen,” “only Auschwitz would help here,” in apparent reference to the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The remark came to light through an anonymous letter from staff to MeinBezirk, published on Tuesday. In that letter, employees described the comment as crossing “red lines of humanity and professionalism” and accused the primary doctor of creating an intolerable working environment through shouting and aggressive behavior toward both patients and staff. Nurses reportedly began refusing to accompany him on rounds because of the atmosphere on the ward.
Following publication of the allegations, the Lower Austria Health Agency (Niederösterreichische Landesgesundheitsagentur, LGA), which operates the state’s hospitals, confirmed that the physician had first been suspended and then dismissed.
“After the incident at Horn Regional Hospital became known on Friday, the person concerned was immediately released from duty,” the agency said in a statement quoted by Austrian media on Tuesday. “Following investigations under employment law, the employment relationship has now been terminated with immediate effect at the earliest possible date.”
The LGA condemned the remarks as fundamentally incompatible with the institution’s values. “Such statements are in direct contradiction to our fundamental values. They are to be condemned in the strongest possible terms and will not be tolerated by us in any way,” the agency said, adding that comments of this kind represent “a massive breach of official duties.”
Outrage over flagship regional hospital
Austrian media noted that the case has sparked particular outrage because Horn is regarded as one of the region's flagship hospitals in the largely rural Waldviertel. Under a long-term health plan, Horn is one of only two “full” hospitals in the area that will remain open as a traditional acute care facility, while others will be closed or converted to different roles. Just two weeks ago, regional politicians approved some €90 million for renovation and expansion of the hospital, described as the largest investment in decades in the region’s health infrastructure.
The scandal is the second in as many years involving a department head at the same hospital. In 2023, another primary physician at Landesklinikum Horn allegedly told a roughly 90-year-old patient, “What do you want? You are 90, you are going to die,” in remarks reported at the time by the Kronen Zeitung. That earlier case triggered a public debate in Lower Austria over what kind of language is acceptable from senior doctors when communicating with severely ill patients. The doctor involved in that incident retired a few months later.
Austria has some of Europe’s strictest laws against the revival or glorification of National Socialism, including the 1947 Prohibition Act (Verbotsgesetz), which outlaws Nazi propaganda and the belittlement of Nazi crimes, and additional legislation banning Nazi symbols and related extremist imagery. While there is no indication so far that the Horn case will lead to criminal proceedings under those laws, local coverage has framed the doctor’s reported Auschwitz remark as trivializing the Holocaust and normalizing extremist language in a clinical setting.