Mauthausen 8.8.1938 5.5.1945

 

MAUTHAUSEN

8.8. 1938

5.5. 1945

   

CONTENTS

Plan of the main camp . . . . . . . . . . page 2

Sub-camps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 3

Guide to the memorial grounds . . . . . . . . . . . page 4

Guide to the museum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 13

Slave prisoners . . . . . . . . . . . . page 27

Labour assignment and the daily round . . . . . . . . page 20

The guards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 30

History of the Camp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 32

Dear Visitor! You are now on the grounds of the former German concentration camp of Mauthausen. It was one of the many camps set up over almost all Europe between the years 1933 and 1945 by the National Socialist regime of Adolf Hitler for the exploitation and extermination of its opponents.

From 1938 to 1945 the name Mauthausen spread fear and terror; Mauthausen was a synonym for death by slave labour in the quarries. There were more than 206,000 people in this camp. The number of prisoners who were killed here or who perished as a result of the tourments of camp life exceeded 110,000. The soil of this vast stronghold is soaked with the blood of thousands of innocent people.

In order to remind future generations of what the National Socialist tyranny of Hitler Germany meant to our people and to all mankind, the Austrian Federal Government has erected a museum and has transformed the remains of this camp into a worthy memorial, a place of warning and commemoration. Here 110,000 people gave their greatest possession, their life, for the ideals of love for humanity, of loyalty and comradeship in the struggle for their homeland against Nazi barbarity and war. Think on this!

1    

The Main Camp of Mauthausen Concentration Camp Consisted of:

Camp I:

Huts 1 to 20: prisoners' living quarters, Huts 2 to 15 (and from autumn 1943 on huts 16 to 29 too) were for prisoners permanently stationed in the main camp.

Huts 16 to 18 and 19 respectively were for many years kept for newcomers (quarantine); for a period of 7 months in 1941-1942 they served as a PoW camp for Soviet prisoners of war; in 1945 they were used for women prisoners.

Camp I also included the laundry, kitchen barracks, dention buildings, sick quarters (now the Museum) and the roll-call ground.

Camp II:

Huts 21 to 24: at first workshops, later, from spring 1944, prisoners' quarters.

Camp III:

6 Huts: prisoners' quarters.

Hospital Camp:

At the end this comprised 10 prisoners' huts, a washroom, the morgue and a prisoners' kitchen.

Tent Camp:

6 large and 8 smaller marquees and military tents with an inner area of approximately 5,212 sq.m.

Sub-Camps of Mauthausen Concentrarion Camp

(Figures in brackets indicate maximum number of prisoners)

AMSTETTEN, railroad construction (max. 2,966 prisoners)

AMSTETTEN (women), railroad construction (500)

BRETSTEIN, SS farm (approx. 80)

DIPPOLDSAU, hydropower construction (approx. 130)

EBENSEE, underground tunnelling, armaments plant (18,437)

EISENERZ, iron ore mining (400)

GREIN, armaments plant (120)

GROSSRAMING, hydropower construction (1,013)

GUNSKIRCHEN, reception camp (approx. 15,000)

GUSEN I, quarries and armaments plant (11,480)

GUSEN II, underground tunnelling and armaments plant (12,537)

GUSEN III, brickworks (274)

SCHLOSS HARTHEIM, extermination camp

HIRTENBERG (women), cartridge factory (459)

HINTERBRÜHL, aircraft construction (approx. 400)

KLAGENFURT, SS barrack-building (130)

LENZING (women), textile factory (565)

SCHLOSS LIND, SS farm (20)

LINZ I, armaments plant (790)

LINZ II, armaments plant (285)

LINZ III, armaments plant (5,615)

LOIBLPASS NORD UND SÜD, two camps, road tunnel construction (1,294)

MELK, underground tunnelling for armaments factories (10,314)

SCHLOSS MITTERSILL (women), SS research institute (15)

PASSAU, armaments plant (83)

PASSAU II, armaments plant (333)

PEGGAU (armaments plant, 888)

LEIBNITZ, armaments plant (655)

SCHLIER, Redl-Zipf, V-weapons production and forgery of money (1,488)

SAURER-WERKE WIEN, armaments plant (1,480)

SCHÖNBRUNN-WIEN, experimental station (5)

STEYR, armaments plant (1,971)

ST. AEGYD AM NEUWALDE, armaments plant (303)

ST. LAMBRECHT, SS farm (80)

ST. LAMBRECHT (women), SS farm (20)

ST. VALENTIN, tank production (1,480)

TERNBERG, hydropower construction (406)

VÖCKLABRUCK, road construction (300)

WELS I, armaments plant (397)

WIENER NEUDORF, aircraft engine works (2,954)

WIENER NEUSTADT, armaments plant (approx. 1,000)

SCHWECHAT, aircraft construction (2,568)

FLORIDSDORF, Horherr-Schrantz, and JEDLESEE, armaments (2,737)

BACHMANNING, sawmills (20)

ENNS-BUNKERBAU, shleter construction (approx. 2,000)

SCHIFF Mauthausen, reception camp (approx. 700)

ZELTLAGER, reception camp (tents, approx. 10,000)

c.f. Museum: Table 1.

3  

Figures in the left margin preceding the description of the individual camp objects refer to the numbers on the plan of the Camp

1 Entrance gate

This gate was the only entrance to the main camp, known as the "protective detention camp." Between the towers over the gate there is a wooden platform for the guards. Inside the tower on the right, on the ground floor, was a duty room, known as the "Jourhaus". Here the prisoners were checked as they marched in and out. Inside the camp on the left tower, there is an iron chain which was used for purposes of torture.

2 The roll-call ground

Once past the entrance gate you find yourself on the roll-call ground, bordered on the left by wooden huts and on the right by wooden and stone huts. On this roll-call ground prisoners were counted three times a day (roll-call). It is here too that public executions were carried out. In their "leisure time" prisoners were allowed to walk between the rows of huts (camp streets) and on the roll-call ground.

3

In the centre of the roll-call ground the Austrian Federal Government erected a memorial to the memory of all the victims of this concentration camp.

4 Baracks 5: Sick quarters and Jewish block

In the last barracks of the first row, Stube "B", some 2,600 jewish political prisoners were quartered between 1941 and March 1944. With very few exceptions all of them were put to death.

To the left of the barracks (Stube "A") was the sick quarters for the prisoners.

c. f. Museum: Tables No. 75-77

5 Prisoners' Barracks 6

These huts housed the kitchen personnel. Each hut (known as a "Block") was sub-divided into two sections, "A" on the left and "B" on the right. Each of these consisted of two compartments, one being living quarters and the other sleeping quarters. The majority of prisoners were only allowed in the sleeping quarters, the living quarters being reserved for functionaries.

Between the two sections there was a lavatory, a small room and a washroom. Two or three-bunk wooden structures served as beds and two prisoners usually shared one bed.

Section "B" of Hut 6 has been reconstructed to give a rough idea of what it was like for the prisoners of Mauthausen.

6 The quarantine barracks

Blocks 16-19 were quarantine huts: later, in 1941 and 1942, Soviets prisoners of war were quartered here. Afterwards, with the exception of Block 20, they served as general quarters for prisoners of various nationalities. Right at the end women were housed here. Now there is a cemetery which contains the bodies of some 9,800 prisoners exhumed from the mass grave at Marbach.

7 Hut 20 – The Death Block

On 2 February 1945 some 600 "K" prisoners escaped; all but 8 or 10 of them were, however, recaptured and put to death.

c.f. Museum: Action "K", Tables No. 112, 113 and 114.

8 Camp II

From 1944 on this camp consisted of huts 21-24, and was set aside for the reception of newcomers. It is now a cemetry where prisoners of Mauthausen and Gusen who died after the liberation of their camps were buried in 1960.

c.f. Museum: Relief map of the camp, No. 84.

9 Camp III

Camp III was situated at the eastern end and consisted of 8 huts without water or lavatories. At first, in summer 1944, non-registered Warsaw women were brought here. In April 1945 some 3,000 weak and physically incapacitated prisoners were concentrated within Camp III. The SS gaurds put 800 of them to death in the gas chambers; 2,000 were saved as the result of an all-out solidarity action by the international prisoners' resistance movement.

c.f. Museum: Relife map of the camp, No. 84.

10 Sick quarters

now the Museum

The new hospital was in use from July 1944; at the time the camp was disbanded the building was only half completed. The Mathausen Museum is now accommodated here.

11 The crematory

There were three furnaces for cremation in the main camp. They were situated in the basement beneath the sick quarters (near the Museum entrance), at the neck-shot execution corner (an oil furnace), and below the bunker. Next to the first furnace (below the jail) was the dissecting room where gold teeth were extracted from the dead bodies.

There were also cremation furnaces in the sub-camps of Gusen I, Ebensee, Melk and Hartheim.

12 The gas chamber

The gas chamber was camouflaged as bathrooms, with showers and sluices. Cyclone B gas streamed into the gas chamber from the control room through a shaft (situated in the corner on the right; it was removed by the SS in April 1945).

13 Execution corner

The corner where prisoners were executed by a shot in the back of the neck was situated in the room containing the second cremation oil furnace. A device for measuring prisoners' heights stood at the wall on the left. When the prisoner stood in front of this, a shot was fired into the back of his neck through a slot in the head board.

14 The camp jail

15 The kitchen

The kitchen consisted of a number cooking boilers upstairs and of storage facilities downstairs.

A normal daily ration for prisoners consisted of: in the morning about half a pint of black coffee: at midday a pint and a half of turnip stew with 3-4 potatoes; evenings 250 grams of brown bread, 25 grams of sausage and about a pint of clear soup. On Sunday evenings, instead of sausage there was 25 grams of margarine and a tablespoonful of jam.

c.f. Museum: Table No. 62.

16 The laundry

In the lower part of these huts was the bath for newcomers and a disinfection room; in the upper part the laundry. Today there is a chapel and memorial room in the upper part.

17 The Wailing Wall

Newcomers were lined up at the wall next to the "Jourhaus". It was here that the first interrogations took place and all too often, according to the SS guards' mood, the prisoners met with brutal ill-treatment. Prisoners often had to stand here for hours, even days, with their faces to the wall. They were chained to the iron rings which can still be seen in the wall.

 

18 The camp walls and watch towers

The barbed wire along the camp wall, charged with an electric current of 380 volts, made escape almost impossible. The watch towers erected along the wall were manned by guards with machine guns. By night large mobile searchlights lit up the immediate surroundings of the camp wall and the camp itself.

c.f. Museum: Camp relief map, No. 84.

19 Command Headquarters

Outside the camp, in front of the main gate, stands the former Command Headquarters, the only remaining building.

20 The garage yard

The steps in front of the Command Headquarters lead to the SS garage yard.

21 The buildings outside the main gate – The approach road

In front of the main gate, outside the camp, on both sides of the approach road, where today the memorials of the various nations stand, stood the SS guards' barracks, a SS hospital, the camp's political department, the stores and the casino for troops and officers of the SS up to 1945.

c.f. Museum: Camp map relief, No. 84.

The memorials of the nations

To the right of the entrance roach and the main gate are the memorials of the following nationalities:

23 Czechoslovak

24 Soviet

25 Luxemburg

26 Spanish

27 French

28 Albanian and

29 Polish.

To the left of the entrance road (after the Command HQ) are the following memorials:

30 British

31 Belgian

32 Italian

33 Hungarian and

34 Yugoslav.

35 At the bend in the road, where the entrance road leads to the quarry, stands the memorial of the Democratic Republic of Germany.

36 The camp hospital

This was also known as the Russian camp as it was originally conceived as a reception centre for Soviet PoW's. As many as 5 persons lay in one bed. In the final year the number of sick persons quartered here remained at a steady 8,000. There were even occasional cases of cannibalism.

 

The memorial now standing here was erected by the Austrian Federal Government in memory of the Soviet prisoners who perished in the camp.

37

Between the road and the camp hospital lay the sports ground for the guards.

c.f. Museum: Tables 88-94, and camp relief map, No. 84.

38 The quarry steps

From the approach road one reaches the quarry by way of the "death steps" (186 steps). Up to 1942 the steps were formed out of randomly placed, loosely piled rocks or boulders. Many hundreds, even thousands of people were shot here or were crushed to death by falling boulders.

39 The quarry

The quarry "Wiener Graben" was one of the principal reasons for erecting a concentration camp in Mauthausen. From the years 1943 on, the quarry also housed various armaments plants and sheds specially erected for the purpose. An average of over 2,000 prisoners were put to work in the quarry. Thousands lost their lives here.

c.f. Museum: Camp relief map, No. 84.

40 The "parachutists' cliff"

Prisoners were frequently thrown over the steep face of the quarry between the approach road and the death steps. Large groups of Jews from the Netherlands lost their lives this way. The SS gaurds dubbed it "parachutists' cliff."

 

41 The ash heap

Outside the camp, north of hut 15, the ashes of the bodies cremated were dumped over the slope.

42 The places of execution

Up to 1943 the place for execution by mass shooting was opposite Block 20, on a slope. Later, prisoners were only shot in the neck at the execution corner.

43 The workshops and guards' barracks

Round the prisoners' camp outside the camp wall were workshops, such as the locksmiths', joiners' and tailoring workshops, the kennels and the barracks for the guards.

c.f. Museum: Camp relief map, No. 84.

44 .The tent camp

The tent camp (consisting of 14 marquees and military tents) was erected in summer 1944. In particular during 1945, thousands of Hungarian prisoners (mainly Jews) were quartered here. There was no water and there were no lavatory facilities.

c.f. Museum: Camp relife map, No. 84.

 

Guide through the Museum erected by the Austrian Federal Government

figures in the left margin refer to the numbered tables and showcases

1 On the right a list of all the National Socialist concentration and extermination camps in Europe: the principal camps, with the exakt number of sub-camps (1933 – 1945). Left, the names of former National Socialist concentration and penal camps on Austrian territory. Red triangles stand for sub-camps of Mauthausen concentration camp for men prisoners; red triangles with an "F" those for women; green triangles stand for subcamps of Dachau concentration camp. Red dots indicate work commandos of Mauthausen concentration camp, round black circles labour and penal camps of the secret state police (GESTAPO). The two areas in eastern Austria outlined in red are where some 100,000 people, mainly Hungarian Jews, were put to forced labor building the "East Wall" (1944-1945).

The place names with numbers shown in the centre indicate where the above-mentioned penal camps were situated; the figures refer to the position marked with a black circle on the map of Austria. Here also are the sub-camps of Dachau concentration camp (green triangles), all sub camps of Mauthausen concentration camp (red triangles), with the date of founding, the date of closure and the maximum number of prisoners quartered there.

2 Prominent SS leaders inspect Mauthausen concentration camp (1939).

 

3 Seizure of power by the National Socialists (Hitler Party) in Germany (30. 1. 1933).

Decree on the dissolution of the Reichstag (German Parliament); the Reichstag fire (27. 2. 1933); decree anulling the constitution of the German Reich (28. 2. 1933).

4 First news of the start of the National Socialist rule of terror. Anti-semetic leaflets; arrest of political opponents; SS men as auxiliary police.

5 Reports on the founding of the first concentration camp of Dachau (21. 3. 1933); a photo from the first days of Oranienburg concentration camp (Sachsenhausen concentration camp, 1933); Heinrich Himmler, founder of the concentration camp, chief of the German police and of the SS.

6 Showcase:

Letters concerning the founding and the dissolution of concentration camps and on the carrying out of protective custody and the treatment of prisoners.

7 The National Socialists reach out towards Austria: agitation, terror and putsch. National Socialist leaflets, two attacks with explosives, confiscated explosives; anti-nazi leaflet (1934 – 1938).

8 Seizure of power by the nazis in Austria; invasion by German troops (13. 3. 1938).

9 The invasion of German troops into Poland marked the start of World War II (1. 9. 1939). A "round table discussion" by Hitler on the treatment of Poles: "There is only one ruler for the Poles... the German... The general government is... one vast labour camp..."(1. 10. 1940).

10 The bombed city of Warsaw.

11 The "Schutzataffel" (SS) of the NSDAP possessed over 40 major enterprises, including the "Deutsche Erdund Steinwerke GmbH." (DEST), which administered the quarries in Mauthausen and Gusen. List of SS concerns; a contract between DEST and the administrative department for the reorganisation of Berlin on the delivery of building materials.

12 Showcase:

The first reports on the founding of Mauthausen concentration camp (15. 6. 1938) and on the financing of the building of Mauthausen concentration camp.

13 Period of construction of Mauthausen concentration camp (1938 – 1941).

14 Order by the Chief of the State Police and of the SD, R. Heydrich (1. 1. 1941) putting into effect the classification of the concentration camps into various camp grades: "... Grade III for heavily incriminated incorrigibles and criminals with previous convictions as well as asocial persons, i.e. to all intents and purposes non re-educable prisoners, Mauthausen concentration camp..."

15 Number of prisoners in Mauthausen concentration camp and sub-camps (18. 2. 1944, 31. 12. 1944 and 15. 3. 1945).

16 The Ebensee sub-camp; tunnels for an underground oil refinery.

17 Movement of prisoners in Ebensee (18. 11. 1943 – 4. 5. 1945).

18 Pictures after the liberation of Ebensee. Data on deaths.

19 Showcase:

Photos of the archaeological excavations in Gusen, where first a working commando of priests and then of Polish intellectuals unearthed prehistoric graves (1941 – 1943).

20 Showcase:

Neutralised Cyclone B gas crystals in the original containers.

14    

Some pages from the Gusen death register.

21 Plan of sub-camp Gusen I; guards hut; data on admittances to Gusen I (1941); transfer lists.

22 List of ages of live prisoners and those who died in Gusen (April 1943); reports of changes at Gusen.

23 General view of Gusen I; the final report of numbers at Gusen (3. 5. 1945); statement on coke consumption for Gusen crematorium furnace (23. 8. 1941); demand for transport of urns (18. 3. 1942).

24 Sketch-map of Schloß Hartheim. This building was an euthanasia institute up to 1941; from then up to December 1944 it was a centre for gassing sick and physically emaciated prisoners from Dachau and Mauthausen.

25 Prisoner transfer lists (12. 8. 1941 and July 1944). Transfers to Hartheim proceeded within the framework of Action "14 f 13" and were camouflaged as transports to "Dachau sanatorium", to a "home for reconvalescents" or to "a hospital or nursing home."

26 Reports about Hartheim; order on the "elimination of technical installations" (November 1944).

27 Reports on events in Hartheim.

28 Reports on the sub-camp of Hirtenberg (women prisoners).

29 Reports on transports to the sub-camps of Linz I, II and III.

30 Shootings "on the run" (1942).

31 Sketch plans and photos of the sub-camp of Melk; minutes of the interrogation of the camp commandant of Melk, Julius Ludolph (21. 5. 1945).

32 Data concerning movement of prisoners in Melk (April 1944 – April 1945).

33 Lists of transports and evacuations from Melk (April 1945); Melk prisoners unfit for work (autumn 1944).

34 Sub-camp Loibl Pass North and South; road and tunnel construction.

35 Showcase:

Reports on changes and escapes.

36 Reports of changes at the sub-camps of Schwechat, Floridsdorf, Jedlesee and Hinterbrühl (aircraft construction).

37 Reports on the shootings and murder of prisoners unable to walk during the evacuation march from Hinterbrühl to Mauthausen (April 1945);

Total number of prisoners in all sub-camps and in Mauthausen (30. 3. 1945).

38 Barbed wire fencing round the camp hospital of Mauthausen.

39 Prisoners at work on the construction of the hospital camp pulling a lorry (1941).

40 Prisoners' identification marks. As identification political prisoners wore a red triangle, criminals a green triangle, emigrants a blue triangle, bible researchers a purple triangle, homosexuals a pink triangle, and so-called asocial prisoners a black triangle. Within the triangle was the intial letter of the prisoner's nationalityy, e.g. "F" for French prisoners, "P" for Poles, "S" for Spaniards, etc. The prisoner's number was written above the triangle.

41 Allocation of prisoners to Mauthausen concentration camp, sub-divided according to nationality, type, year and total number of prisoners on 31. 12. of each year (8. 8. 1938 – 5. 5. 1945)

42 Prisoners from Austria and southern Europe (after a railway journey lasting weeks in cattle trucks).

   

43 The Upper Austrian anti-fascists Alois Fritz and Richard Bernaschek; both were shot in Mauthausen.

44 Total number of prisoners in 6 concentration camps (excluding Soviet PoW's, September 1939 and April 1942); decree of the main Reich security office on changes of structure of the concentration camp and on new assignements of prisoners to the concentration camp (17. 12. 1942).

45 Showcase:

Total number of prisoners on 3. 5. 1945. List of some 5,000 Italians who were killed in Mauthausen concentration camp.

46 Priests in Mauthausen concentration camp. Order prohibiting secretarial (office) work for priests (16. 3. 1944); the Director of the Institute for the Blind in Linz/Urfahr, Dr. Johannes Gruber, who was murdered 7. 4. 1944 in Gusen camp jail.

47 Arrival of Soviet PoW's in Mauthausen and Gusen (1941); decree regarding Soviet PoW's "whose execution was postponed" (1941).

48 Decree of Action "Nacht und Nebel" (NN) and lists of NN prisoners (1943, 1944).

49 Original camp objects: heart-injection syringe: cow hide whip for corporal punishment, rubber hose pipe (known as the "Dolmetscher" or interpreter); miniature model of a punishment stool (known as the "Bock"); a device for carrying stones.

50 Every letter to relatives had to contain the sentence "I am well and in good health."

51 Letter from the 33-year old Czech Bohuslav Janousek: his final letter of 10. 5. 1942 in which he writes "I am in good health." Written notification of the camp commander on 6. 7. 1942 reporting that Janousek had died,, "despite the best possible medicinal treatment and nursing."

52 Order by various police departments to the effect that the named prisoner is to be sent to "a concentration camp of Grade III, Mauthausen."

53 List of names of 47 Netherlands, British and American parachutists who were shot "on the run" on 6 and 7. 9. 1944 in Mauthausen; decree by SS Reichsführer Himmler concerning the camouflaging of the numbering of death certificates in the concentration camps (25. 5. 1943).

54 Data on admittances on departures (March 1945); age groups of prisoners who died in Mauthausen concentration camp (February 1945).

55 Showcase:

Number tabs and metal identity discs of camp functionaries.

56 Ages of prisoners (31. 3. 1943, 31. 3. 1944 and 31. 3. 1945).

57 Shootings "on the run", or suicides.

58 Mass shootings of sick or emaciated persons. More than 2,000 prisoners were shot "on the run" in Mauthausen concentration camp and over 1,500 prisoners committed suicide or were driven to take their own lives.

59 Photos of the execution of the Austrian prisoner Bonarewitz, who escaped in a crate in June 1942 and who, after being forced to remain in the crate for 10 days, was led to his execution to the accompaniment of music on 30. 7. 1942.

60 Decree on "special treatment" or Action "Kugel" (bullet); both meant execution: "... Hangings are to be carried out by a prisoner... The prisoner is to receive 3 cigarettes for carrying out an execution..."

18    

61 Prisoners' personal cards, with entries on their work assignments.

62 Rules for provision of prisoners – in practice and theory.

63 Decrees on mass arrests and deportations to concentration camps (1943, 1944).

64 Work commando of stone carriers on the death steps (spring 1942).

65 Wiener Graben quarry, Decree on forced labour by prisoners (30. 4. 1942).

Factories where prisoners were put to work; names of Mauthausen work commandos; times of marching in and out (winter 1944 – 1945).

67 From December 1943 to December 1944 some of the prisoners working in armaments and almost all camp functionaries received a week's wage between –.50 to 5.– Reichsmark.

68 Letter by Albert Speer, Reich minister for weapons and munitions (5. 4. 1943) to Himmler with proposals for a "more rational allocation of prisoners in the German armaments economy"; letter of thanks from Milch, general inspector for the Luftwaffe (13. 4. 1944), for putting prisoners to forced labour in the armaments industry of the Luftwaffe (air force).

69 A poem written in Gusen by the Polish prisoner Dr. Jan Tarasiewiecz; lid of a casket made by an unknown Polish prisoner in Gusen (1944).

70 Various objects made by prisoners; poems written in Mauthausen (1943, 1944).

71 Wiener Graben quarry. Shoes, slippers and clothing of prisoners. Up to the winter of 1942/43 prisoners were only allowed to wear wooden clogs.

72 Prisoner's clothing; metal rods used fur purposes of

 

torture in Mauthausen (known as "Tibetian prayer mills").

73 Drawings made illegally by prisoners from Gusen.

74 Illegal cards of congratulation from Mauthausen.

75 Jewish prisoners' identity discs.

76 Between 1939 and spring 1944, Jewish prisoners from Austria, Germany, Poland and Bohemia and Moravia were deported to Mauthausen for carrying out political activity; further, some 1400 Jews from the Netherlands were sent to Mauthausen concentration camp as hostages; almost all were murdered; list of the names of Netherlands Jews who were transported to Hartheim on 12. 8. 1941 and put to death. Decree on better medical treatment of Jewish prisoners (14. 12. 1944).

77 Decrees on the treatment of Jews (5. 3. 1941, 19. 8. 1942, 5. 11. 1942); two pages from a death register in Mauthausen (June and July 1941).

78 Women in Mauthausen concentration camp; decree (14. 7. 1943) on corporal punishment for women Prisoners: "... corporal punishment for Russian women is to be carried out by Polish women, and for Polish and Ukrainian women by Russian women..."

79 Total number of women prisoners (April 1945).

80 Children and youth; in March 1945 there were 15,048 children and youth in Mauthausen concentration camp.

81 Soviet and Polish children in Mauthausen and Gussen (summer 1944).

82 Transport list of young Jewish children (19. 8. 1944); Soviet children and youth in Mauthausen (1944); decree on the treatment of Jewish workers from the east (29. 1. 1943).

 

83 From 14. 4. 1945 the forgery commando (manufacture of forged money, stamps and documents) was transferred from Sachsenhausen concentration camp to the sub-camp of Schlier.

84 Relief map of Mauthausen concentration camp, with the Wiener Graben quarry, Camp I, II, III, tent camp, hospital camp, workshops, stores, SS quarters, etc.

85 86 87 Reports on the behaviour of the SS towards the population of Mauthausen and enviornment; reactions of the population to events in the concentration camp.

88 Mauthausen camp hospital; data on sick prisoners (21. 3. 1945).

89 Total number of persons in the camp hospital (25. 3. 1945); decree by the SS economic administration main office according to which "only mentally sick prisoners" were in future to be put to death in Hartheim (27. 3. 1945).

90 Exerpts from the Mauthausen hospital register; report on care of sick persons (25. 3. 1945); decree on the ending of experimental tests on prisoners (12. 5. 1944).

91 Showcase:

Number of sick persons (23. 3. 1945); For 16,457 sick persons there were 6,761 beds; treated human skin.

92 Reports and figures on pseudomedical experiments on humans with vaccine; materials from the Gusen pathological department.

93 A crippled Netherlands grammer school teacher who was put to death in December 1942 by means of a heart injection and then dissected and reduced to a skeleton; three letters on human experiments carried out in Mauthausen.

94 Reports on nutrition tests. Out of 370 prisoners, 116 died

 

during the experiments and a further 48 from this series of experiments were gassed in Hartheim.

95 Mass shootings "on the run".

96 Shootings "on the run". SS Reichsfuhrer Himmler hands out instructions on various ways of guarding prisoners: "... Dogs... have to be trained... so that, with the sole exception of their keeper, they tear every other person to pieces..."

97 In the main criminal prisoners were drawn on from prison administration.

98 The Schutzstaffel (SS) are "standing armed troops called on to solve[?] special tasks..."; SS notice in the garage yard.

99 Plan of the organisation of Mauthausen concentration camp.

100 Mauthausen SS leaders; certificate of number strength report (12.2.1940)

101 Tasks and duties of the SS guards.

102 SS steel helmets; an SS leader's uniform leather strap engraved with places of duty.

103 SS inspection; camp commandant Ziereis with SS NICO's; Stasek, a Czech political prisoner, describes how he was presented to visitors of the International Red Cross as ,,The murderer of his grandmother".

104 A register of facts was formally kept on every case of shooting ,,on the run": listed ,,Jew protective prisoner" Edmond Hirsch attempted suicide and was therefore shot" on the run".

105 Prominent National Socialists inspecting Mauthausen and Gusen concentration camps (1941 and 1942).

106 Members of the Mauthausen SS at their trial in Dachau (1946).

   

107 Showcase:

Letters from the political department and decrees by the main economic administration office and of the concentration camp inspector.

108 Showcase:

Directions for the leader of the political department, in the concentration camp (23. 3. 1944)

109 Showcase:

Lists of the SS reservisits of Mauthausen concentration camp. Decrees pertaining to Soviet civilian workers who ,,are not to be released from the concentration camp" and on putting prisoners to work in armament plants.

110 The camp hospital immediately after the liberation (May 1945).

111 Everyday belongings of prisoners from Gunskirchen. A radio made illegally in the electrical workshop.

112 Action "K" meant execution by shooting. In the framework of this Action 5,040 prisoners, mainly Soviet NCO's and officers, were brought to Mauthausen (Block 20) where they were, among other things, left to starve; decree on Action "K" and directions on putting it into effect (4. 3. 1944).

113 On 2. 2. 1945, 419 "K" prisoners escaped.

114 Photos and reports on the escape of ,,K" prisoners. Only 7 or 8 of those who escaped survived. ,,K" prisoners who were saved at a meeting in Moscow (1956).

 

115 During the final days, and the liberation. American tanks in Mauthausen (5. 5. 1945).

116 Starving prisoners fight over a crust of bread (end of April 1945); reports of changes (28. 4. 1945).

117 Reports on changes during the final days of Mauthausen concentration camp: In April 1945, 10,791 men and 32 women prisoners redistered "died"; of these, 1,853 were gassed, over 400 shot "on the run", 52 were killed by means of heart injections, 49 committed suicide and 90 were executed.

118 American troops in Mauthausen (7. 5. 1945).

119 As a result of an agreement between the International Red Cross and SS leaders, 736 women and 592 men (French, Belgians and Netherlands) were released from 19. 4. 1945.

120 Solidarity action in the camp.

121 The Austrian prisoner Josef Kohl was one of the finest and most courageous figures of the illegal solidarity and resistance organisation.

122 Decree on the guarding of prisonerrs and on acts of sabotage in the armaments plants (1944); Leo Gabler, an Austrian Communist functionary, participated in the founding of the illegal prisoners' organisation.

123 Photos and telegrams on fights between prisoners and the SS (5. 5. to 7. 5. 1945). The Austrian Colonel H. Kodre and the Soviet Major A. Pigorov were the leaders of the armed prisoner's units in Mauthausen.

124 Photos und telegrams on the fight against the SS.

125 Excerpts from the minutes of the illegal International Mauthausen Committee.

126 Telegram from liberated Austrian prisoners to the provisional Austrian Government (May 1945). Letter of thanks and notification of self-administration by liberated prisoners (May 1945).

127 Soviet PoW invalids returning from a Danube ship where they had been deported to at the end of April 1945 (8. 5. 1945)

128 Farewell demonstration of Mauthausen prisoners 16. 5. 1945).

129 Call by the International Mauthausen Committee (16. 5. 1945): liberated prisoners being transported back to their own countries.

130 Showcase

Card index of prisoners.

131–133 Camp scenes from Gusen; sketches by a French prisoner.

134 List of all institutions who made documents and photos avalible for this Museum.

26[?]  

Slave prisoners

Once delivered up into the concentration camp, it was intended that the prisoner be completely isolated from the public and deprived of his personality. His name was eradicated and, to the extent that he was registered in any way at all, this was carried out by giving him a serial number in a list of consecutively numbered prisoners. Individual prisoners could only be distringuished from one another by the coloured triangle they wore on their left chest, which indicated to which national, political or racial category he or she had been allocated. Political prisoners wore a red triangle and, according to their nationality the initial of their nation was printed in black within the tirangle. Thus French prisoners had a large "F". Yugoslavs a "J" etc. Jews had to wear a yellow Star of David beneath the red triangle. Criminal prisoners wore a green triangle. Below the coloured triangle was the prisoner's number printed in black figures on a white background

In 1938 the majority of prisoners in the camp were criminals. In 1939 political prisoners from Germany and Austria arrived, and then in 1940, thousands of Poles, thousands of Spanish Republicans, including many hundreds of children and youth. Large transports of Czechs, and Poles followed, with many students, artists, intellectuals

 

and priests. The year 1941 saw the influx of prisoners from the Netherlands (Jews), Yugoslavia and from the Soviet Union, among them thousands of prisoners of war. In the years between 1942 and 1944, political prisoners from France, Belgium, the Netherlands. Austira, Greece, Albania, Poland, the USSR, Italy, Hungary, Germany and again many thousands of non-registered Soviet prisoners of war were brought to Mauthausen. In 1945 tens of thousands of prisoners from concentration camps in countries evacuated by the Germans were transfered to Mauthausen from Lublin, Aushwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Sachsenhausen, Ravensbrück, Natzweiler, Groß-Rosen, etc. In this period, too, thousands of Hungarian soldiers and civilains (mainly Jews) were brought to the camp.

On 3. 5. 1945 there were offically 64.800 men, 1,734 women and approximately 15,000 non-listed prisoners in Mauthausen concentration camp. Among them, listed according to nationality: 23 Albainians, 4 Britishers, 2,791 Yugoslavs, 3 Indonesians, 4 Arabs, 1 South African, 191 Belgians, 3 Bulgarians, 2 Chinese, 1,312 Czechoslovaks, 1 Egyptian, 3,179 Frenchmen, 90 Dutchmen, 2,263 Italians, 2,184 Spaniards, 3 Turks, 1 Canadian, 64 Luxemburg nationals, 18,015 Hungarians, 1,850 Germans, 502 Austrians, 15,803 Poles, 23 Romanians, 15,581 Soviet citizens, 2 Americans, Norwegians, Swiss, Greek and many others.

c.f. Museum: Tables No. 15, 40, 41, 56, 79, and 117.

   

Labour assignment and the daily round

Up to the year 1939 the majority of prisoners were put to work on the building of the camp and of the SS quarters, later mainly in the quarry. After the year 1943, prisoners worked in the armaments industry. Mauthausen prisoners were to be found in almost all larger Austrian armaments plants.

In summer, Mondays to Saturdays, reveille was at 4.45 a.m.: roll-call was at 5.15 a.m.: working hours from 6 to 12; midday break (including marching in and out and roll-call for certain work commandos in the camp grounds) was from 12 to 13 hours; working time again from 13 to 19 hours; this was followed by roll-call and the handing out of food. On Sundays only certain work commandos in armaments and the penal department were marched out to work.

In winter reveille was at 5.15 and work started and ended in the quarries at dawn and dusk. In the armaments plants (in the underground works too) working time alone was 11 hours daily.

c.f. Museum: Tables No 65 and 66.

The Guards

The guards at Mauthausen and in the sub-camps consisted of some 6,000 - 9,000 members of the SS. The "SS" (initial letters for Schutz-Staffel) was an abbrevation for Special Units of the National Socialist Party (NSDAP). The SS formations originally served as protective detachments at meetings, as body gaurds for leaders of the party, and then they were used as guards at the concentration camps, for the purpose of the secret political police (GESTAPO) and, finally, as special units in war work who chiefly carried out the mass extermination of Jews and Slavs in the various occupied countries. Anyone who donned the SS tunice sold himself to crime.

c.f. Museum: Tables No. 98 to 109.

30    

History of the Camp

A few weeks after the occupation of Austria by the German troops, prominent German SS and police officers (Himmler and Pohl) inspected the Mauthausen quarries and decided it was suited for the creation of a concentration camp. On 8 August 1938, prisoners from Dachau concentration camp were transfered to the quarry "Wiener Graben" and the construction of Mauthausen concentration camp started. Mauthausen camp was the central camp (known by the SS gaurds as "Mother Camp") for all Austria (at that time called "Ostmark"). Under the Mauthausen camp administration were 49 permanent sub-camps or temporary ones that only existed for a few weeks. It is estimated that between 8. 8. 1938 and the liberation on 5 May 1945 some 206,000 persons of both sexes were imprisoned here. By far that majority of Mauthausen prisoners were people who were put into "protective custody as people's delinquents" by the National Socialist authorities because of their nationality, racial origin, political activity or their religious beliefs. There were in addition, a small number of criminal prisoners who, by spring 1944, had taken over almost all prisoners' functionary positions. The ousting of criminal prisoners from their positions during the final years of nazi rule was an important achievement of the illegal international prisoners' organisation.

The international resistance organisation was formed in the camp in the summer of 1943 and went over at the beginning of 1945 to the setting up of illegal military formations. At the head of these military formations were an Austrian Colonel and a Soviet Major. President of the illegal International Mauthausen Committee was an Austrian. On 4 May 1945 the International Mauthausen Committee took over the leadership of the camp, the prisoners' military formations disarmed those SS units who had not already flown, and fought the retreating SS units in the area surrounding the camp and along the Danube. On 7 May 1945 the prisoners were finally liberated by soldiers of the US Army.

c.f. Museum: Tables 123, 124, 125 and 126.

The Americans arrive at the camp (7.5.1945)

Written, compiled and edited by Hans Maršálek.

All the photos were made available by the archives of the Mauthausen Museum.

Owner, editor and publisher: Osterreichische Lagergemeinschaft Mathausen.

Responsible for the contents: Polizeirat Hans Maršálek, 1210 Wien, Coulombgasse 6/58/9.

Printed by: Offsetdruck Max Ungar, Wien 1 Seilerstätte 17.