VIENNA (AFP)---The committee that maintains Austria's former Mauthausen concentration camp said Tuesday it was prepared to forgive the youths behind a neo-Nazi style shooting attack there earlier this month.
One of the youths had apologised in writing, said committee head Willi Mernyi who said he was ready to give the attackers another chance if their contrition was genuine.
"What they did must not be trivialised. But we want to give them a chance. If they sincerely regret their action, we'll offer them our hand," Mernyi said in a statement.
Five masked youths, aged between 14 and 17, disrupted a May 9 ceremony marking the liberation of the Mauthausen camp at Ebensee, central Austria.
The youths made Nazi style salutes and fired compressed air rifles on the visitors, injuring two French nationals, who were former prisoners at the camp. Two of the youths were arrested.
The incident has sent shock waves through Austrian society which is growing increasingly concerned at what it fears is a rise in neo-Nazi activity.
Interior Minister Maria Fekter has called for an investigation into the causes of rising extremism in Austria, describing the incident in Ebensee as "very serious".
The committee said it had received a letter of apology from one of the two detained youngsters. The letter was published by the 16-year-old's lawyer, Kurt Waldhoer, on Monday.
"We did not want to hurt or threaten anybody ... It was just supposed to be a youthful prank," the letter stated.
"I can understand that you would be outraged, when I realise that you have been personally touched by the events at Ebensee, or even that you lost a father or grandfather," he added.
About half of the 200,000 people deported to Mauthausen, many of whom were French nationals, perished there.