Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp

Mauthausen (from summer 1940, Mauthausen-Gusen) was a group of 49 Nazi concentration camps situated around the small town of Mauthausen in Upper Austria, about 20 kilometers east of the city of Linz.

Table of contents

1 History
2 Methodology of crime
3 Victims
4 Famous inmates
5 External links:

History

It was established on August 8 1938 and was under the command of Franz Ziereis at the time it was liberated on May 5 1945 by 41st Recon Squad, 11th Armoured Division, 3rd US Army.

Unlike many other concentration camp systems, Mauthausen-Gusen was used mostly for extermination through labour of the intelligentsia, educated people and higher classes of the countries subjugated by Germany during World War II. Until early 1940 the largest group of inmates consisted of German socialists, homosexuals and Roma. In early 1940 a large number of Poles were transferred to the Mauthausen-Gusen complex, composed mostly of artists, scientists, boy-scouts, teachers and university professors.

In late 1941 a large number of Soviet POWs arrived, and this group was also the first one to be gassed in the gas chambers, early in 1942. Previously the exhausted prisoners were transferred to Hartheim Castle, where the gas chambers operated since 1940.

In 1944 a large group of Hungarian and Dutch Jews was also transferred, most of them were either exterminated through hard labour or were thrown down the sides of the Mauthausen quarry (nick-named the Parachute Wall by the SS guards). During the final months of the war also some 20 000 prisoners from other concentration camps were marched to the complex. Before and during World War II large groups of Spanish Republicans were also transferred to the camp and its sub-camps.

The estimated number of prisoners that passed through all of the sub-camps is 335 000; most of them were forced to do hard labour in a rock quarry. Some 122 000 were murdered. The living conditions were extremely squalid, all were undernourished and diseases without proper medical attention caused many deaths. Several sub-camps of the KL Mauthausen included munitions factories, quarries, mines, arms factories and Me 262 assembly plants. Also, the inmates were used for slave labour at the nearby farms. Those used at the quarries were working 12 hours a day until totally exhausted. Then the inmates were transferred to other concentration camps for extermination or killed at the camp with a lethal injection and cremated in a local crematorium.

For a full list of KL Mauthausen sub-camps see: List of subcamps of Mauthausen.

Methodology of crime

The methods of extermination included:

Slave labour in the quarries

Gas chambers

Mobile gas chambers - a lorry with the exhaust tube directed to the inside, shuttling between Mauthausen and Gusen
Icy showers - some 3 000 inmates died of hypothermia due to being forced to stay under a stream of icy water for several hours
Mass shootings
Medical experiments
Bleeding - several hundred inmates were bled to death and the blood collected was sent to the Eastern Front
Hanging
Starvation - at Mauthausen camp itself some 2 000 prisoners a week were starved to death

Also, the food rations were limited and in the 1940-1942 period an average inmate weighed 42 kilograms. Medical treatment was close to non-existent due to official German policy.

Victims

Altogether, some 122 000 people were murdered during the war in the Mauthausen-Gusen system of concentration camps. Only approximately 80 000 survived the war. The SS before their escape on May 4 1945, tried to destroy the evidence and only approximately 40 000 victims were identified.

Famous inmates

Józef Cyrankiewicz, Polish prime minister (1947-1952 and 1956-1970)
Stanisław Grzesiuk;, Polish poet
Gilbert Norman, SOE agent
Stanisław Staszewski;, Polish poet and writer
Simon Wiesenthal, Nazi war criminals' hunter and author, in 1946 published a book "KZ Mauthausen, Bild und Wort" (Concentration Camp Mauthausen - pictures and words)