The Mauthausen parade ground – a view towards the main gate

Mauthausen concentration camp (known from the summer of 1940 as Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp) grew to become a large group of Nazi concentration camps that were built around the villages of Mauthausen and Gusen in Upper Austria, roughly 20 km east of the city of Linz. Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers See also List of Nazi-German concentration camps, Extermination camp Prior to and during World War II, Nazi Germany under Hitler maintained A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet, but smaller than a Town or City. Mauthausen is a small Market town in Upper Austria, Austria. It is located at about 20 kilometers east of the city of Linz, and has a population Upper Austria (Oberösterreich Horní Rakousko is one of the nine states or Bundesländer of Austria. Linz is the third largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria (Oberösterreich

Initially a single camp at Mauthausen, it expanded over time to become one of the largest labour camp complexes in German-controlled Europe. A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are engaged in Penal labor. ^[1][2] Apart from the four main sub-camps at Mauthausen and nearby Gusen, more than 50 sub-camps, located throughout Austria and southern Germany, used the inmates as slave labour. As a social-economic system slavery is a legal institution under which a Person (called "a slave" is compelled to work for another Several subordinate camps of the KZ Mauthausen complex included quarries, munitions factories, mines, arms factories and Me 262 fighter-plane assembly plants. Below is the list of subcamps of Mauthausen-Gusen complex of Nazi concentration camps. Ammunition, often referred to as ammo, is a generic term derived from the French language la munition which WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout ^[3]

In January 1945, the camps, directed from the central office in Mauthausen, contained roughly 85,000 inmates. ^[4] The death toll remains unknown, although most sources place it between 122,766 and 320,000 for the entire complex. The camps formed one of the first massive concentration camp complexes in Nazi Germany, and were the last ones to be liberated by the Western Allies or the Soviet Union. Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers The Allies of World War II were the countries officially opposed to the Axis powers during the Second World War. The two main camps, Mauthausen and Gusen I, were also the only two camps in the whole of Europe to be labelled as "Grade III" camps, which meant that they were intended to be the toughest camps for the "Incorrigible Political Enemies of the Reich". (ˈraɪk German ˈʁaɪç is a German Loanword cognate with the English Reign, Region, and Rich, but used most to designate ^[1] Unlike many other concentration camps, intended for all categories of prisoners, Mauthausen was mostly used for extermination through labour of the intelligentsia, who were educated people and members of the higher social classes in countries subjugated by Germany during World War II. Extermination through labour (Vernichtung durch Arbeit was a Nazi German World War II principle that regulated the aims and purposes of most of their labour and For the coffee shop company often called Intelligentsia for short see Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea. Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions (or stratification) between individuals or groups in Societies or Cultures. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including ^[5]

History

KZ Mauthausen

On August 7, 1938, prisoners from Dachau concentration camp were sent to the town of Mauthausen near Linz, Austria, to begin the construction of a new camp. Events 322 BC - Battle of Crannon between Athens and Macedon following the death of Alexander the Great. Year 1938 ( MCMXXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Dachau was a Nazi German Concentration camp, and the first one opened in Germany located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions Factory near the Linz is the third largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria (Oberösterreich Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich The location was chosen due to its proximity to the transport hub of Linz, but also because the area was sparsely populated. ^[4] Although the camp was, from the beginning of its existence, controlled by the German state, it was founded by a private company as an economic enterprise. The owner of the Wiener-Graben quarry (the Marbacher-Bruch, and Bettelberg quarries), which was located in and around Mauthausen, was a DEST Company: an acronym for Deutsche Erd- und Steinwerke GmbH. DEST for the Australian government department see the Department of Education Science and Training (Australia The D The company, led by Oswald Pohl, who was also a high-ranking official of the SS, rented the quarries from the City of Vienna and started the construction of the Mauthausen camp. Oswald Pohl ( June 30 1892 - June 7 1951) was a Nazi official and member of the SS (with a rank of SS- Obergruppenführer The ( German for "Protective Squadron" abbreviated SS - or ( Runic)- was a major Nazi organization under Adolf Hitler and the Vienna ( in Wien; see also other names) is the Capital of Austria, and is also one of the nine States of Austria. While DEST rented the quarries at Mauthausen from the city of Vienna in 1938, the company bought it's first lots of land at nearby Gusen already on 25 May 1938. ^[3] A year later, the company ordered the construction of the first camp at Gusen. The granite mined in the quarries had previously been used to pave the streets of Vienna, but the Nazi authorities envisioned a complete reconstruction of major German towns in accordance with the plans of Albert Speer and other architects of Nazi architecture,^[6] for which large quantities of granite were needed. Granite (ˈɡrænɪt is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, Felsic, igneous rock. Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, commonly known as Albert Speer ( 19 March 1905 - 1 September 1981 was an Architect, author and for part of World Nazi architecture was an architectural plan and integral part of the Nazi party 's plans to create a Cultural and

The money needed for the construction of the Mauthausen camp was gathered from a variety of sources, including commercial loans from Dresdner Bank and Prague-based Escompte Bank, the so-called Reinhardt's fund (meaning money stolen from the inmates of the concentration camps themselves); and from the German Red Cross. Dresdner Bank AG is one of Germany 's largest banking corporations and is based in Frankfurt. Prague (ˈprɑːg Praha (ˈpraɦa see also other names) is the Capital and Largest city of the Czech Republic. The Bohemian Discount Bank ( Bebca, Böhmische Escompte-Bank was a Prague -based bank with branches in most major towns of Bohemia and later Czechoslovakia Reinhardt's fund (named after its creator Fritz Reinhardt) was a set of Nazi German bank accounts where the money and valuables stolen from concentration and The German Red Cross (Deutsches Rotes Kreuz is the national Red Cross Society in Germany. ^[4][7]

Mauthausen initially served as a strictly-run prison camp for common criminals, prostitutes^[8] and other categories of "Incorrigible Law Offenders". ^[9] On May 8, 1939 it was converted to a labour camp which was mainly used for the incarceration of political prisoners. Events 589 - Reccared summons the Third Council of Toledo 1450 - Jack Cade's Rebellion: Kentishmen Year 1939 ( MCMXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are engaged in Penal labor. ^[10]

KL Gusen

Aerial view of the Gusen I & II camps

Since DEST bought first lots of land at Gusen already in May 1938 to establish a twin concentration camp at Mauthausen and Gusen from the beginning, construction of Concentration Camp Gusen started not earlier than autumn 1939. In the years 1938 and 1939, inmates of the nearby Mauthausen makeshift camp marched daily to the stone-quarries at Gusen which were more productive and more important for DEST than the Wienergraben Quarry. ^[3] In late 1939, the not yet finished Mauthausen camp, with its Wiener-Graben granite quarry, was already overcrowded with prisoners since Germany started the war against Poland in Septemver 1939. Granite (ˈɡrænɪt is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, Felsic, igneous rock. Their numbers rose from 1,080 in late 1938 to over 3,000 a year later. About that time the construction of a new camp "for the Poles" began in Gusen, about 4. 5 kilometres away. The new camp (later named Gusen I) became operational in May of 1940 while the Kastenhof- and Gusen-Quarries in the vicinity of that new concentration camp were operated with concentration camp inmates from Mauthausen before. The first inmates were put in the first two huts (No. 7 and 8) on April 17, 1940, while the first transport of prisoners - mostly from the camps in Dachau and Sachsenhausen - arrived on May 25 of the same year. Events 69 - After the First Battle of Bedriacum, Vitellius becomes Roman Emperor. Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Dachau was a Nazi German Concentration camp, and the first one opened in Germany located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions Factory near the Sachsenhausen (zaksənˈhaʊzən was a Concentration camp in Germany, operating between 1936 and 1945 Events 1085 - Alfonso VI of Castile takes Toledo Spain back from the Moors. ^[4] The new camp at Gusen saved the inmates of Mauthausen the daily march between both locations.

Like nearby Mauthausen, the Gusen camp also used its inmates as slave labour in the granite quarries, but they also rented them out to various local businesses. In October of 1941, several huts were separated from the Gusen sub-camp by barbed wire and turned into a separate Prisoner of War Labour Camp (German: Kriegsgefangenenarbeitslager). Barbed wire, also known as barb wire (and frequently in dialect form spelled bob or bobbed) is a type of fencing Wire constructed The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. This camp had a large number of prisoners of war incarcerated, mostly Soviet officers. By 1942, the production capacity of both Mauthausen and Gusen had reached its peak. Gusen was expanded to include the central depot of the SS, where various goods, which had been seized from occupied territories, were sorted and then dispatched to Germany. The ( German for "Protective Squadron" abbreviated SS - or ( Runic)- was a major Nazi organization under Adolf Hitler and the ^[11] Local quarries and businesses were in constant need of a new source of labour as more and more Germans were drafted into the Wehrmacht. Wehrmacht (literally "defense force" was the name of the unified Armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945

In March of 1944, the former SS depot was converted to a new sub-camp, and was named Gusen II. Until the end of the war the depot served as an improvised concentration camp. Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people commonly in large groups without trial The camp contained about 12,000 to 17,000 inmates, who were deprived of even the most basic facilities. ^[1] In December of 1944, another part of Gusen was opened in nearby Lungitz. Lungitz is a village in the community of Katsdorf, Perg district of Upper Austria, Austria. Here, parts of a factory infrastructure were converted into the third sub-camp of Gusen — Gusen III. ^[1] The rise in the number of sub-camps could not catch up with the rising number of inmates, which led to overcrowding of the huts in all of the sub-camps of Mauthausen-Gusen. From late 1940 to 1944, the number of inmates per bed rose from 2 to 4. ^[1]

Mauthausen-Gusen camp system

Map showing location of some of the most notable sub-camps of Mauthausen-Gusen

See also: List of subcamps of Mauthausen

As the production in all of the sub-camps of Mauthausen-Gusen complex was constantly rising, so was the number of detainees and the number of the sub-camps themselves. Below is the list of subcamps of Mauthausen-Gusen complex of Nazi concentration camps. Below is the list of subcamps of Mauthausen-Gusen complex of Nazi concentration camps. Although initially the camps of Gusen and Mauthausen mostly served the local quarries, from 1942, and onwards, they began to be included in the German war machine. To accommodate the ever-increasing number of slave workers, additional sub-camps (German: Außenlager) of Mauthausen began construction in all parts of Austria. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. At the end of the war the list included 101 camps (including 49 major sub-camps^[12]) which covered most of modern Austria, from Mittersill south of Salzburg to Schwechat east of Vienna and from Passau on the pre-war Austro-German border to the Loibl Pass on the border with Yugoslavia. Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich Mittersill is a city in the federal state of Salzburg, Austria, in the Pinzgau region of the Alps. is the fourth-largest city in Austria and the capital of the federal state of Salzburg. Schwechat is a city on the south-eastern outskirts of the Austrian capital Vienna. Vienna ( in Wien; see also other names) is the Capital of Austria, and is also one of the nine States of Austria. Passau ( Latin: Batavis or Batavia, also Passavium; Italian: Passavia; Czech: Pasov) is a town in Loiblpass ( German) or Ljubelj ( Slovenian) (elevation 1367 m is a high Mountain pass in the Karawanken / Karavanke chain See also Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Yugoslavia ( Serbo-Croatian The sub-camps were divided into several categories, depending on their main function: Produktionslager for factory workers, Baulager for construction, Aufräumlager for cleaning the rubble in Allied-bombed towns, and Kleinlager (small camps) where the inmates were working specifically for the SS.

Mauthausen-Gusen as a business enterprise

The production output of Mauthausen-Gusen exceeded that of each of the five other large slave labour centres, including: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Flossenbürg, Gross-Rosen, Marburg and Natzweiler-Struthof, in terms of both production quota and profits. "Auschwitz" redirects here For the town see Oświęcim Auschwitz-Birkenau () was the largest of Nazi Germany Flossenbürg was a Nazi concentration camp built in May 1938 by the Schutzstaffel (SS Economic-Administrative Main Office at Flossenbürg, in the KL Gross-Rosen (Groß-Rosen was a German Concentration camp, located in Gross-Rosen, Lower Silesia (now Rogoźnica, Poland Marburg is a city in Hesse, Germany, on the River Lahn. It is the main town of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district Natzweiler-Struthof was a Nazi Concentration camp, located in the Vosges Mountains close to the Alsatian village of Natzwiller ^[13] The list of companies using slave labour from the Mauthausen-Gusen camp system was long, and included both national corporations and small, local firms and communities. Some parts of the quarries were converted into a Mauser machine pistol assembly plant. Mauser is the common name of a German arms manufacturer maker of a line of Bolt-action Rifles from the 1870s to present A machine pistol is a Handgun -style magazine -fed and self-loading Firearm, capable of fully automatic or burst fire and normally chambered In 1943, an underground factory for the Steyr-Daimler-Puch company was built in Gusen. Steyr-Daimler-Puch was a large Manufacturing conglomerate based in Steyr, Austria which was broken up in 1990 Altogether, 45 larger companies took part in making KZ Mauthausen-Gusen one of the most profitable concentration camps of Nazi Germany, with more than 11,000,000 Reichsmark^{[14][15][16][17]} of the profits in 1944 alone. See also List of Nazi-German concentration camps, Extermination camp Prior to and during World War II, Nazi Germany under Hitler maintained For a detailed discussion of the English translation of Reich, see Reich. Among them were:^[13]

• DEST cartel
• Accumulatoren-Fabrik AFA (the main producer of batteries for German U-Boats)
• Bayer (main German producer of medicines and medications)
• Deutsche Bergwerks- und Hüttenbau
• Linz-based Eisenwerke Oberdonau (a major World War II steel supplier for the German Panzer tanks^[19])
• Flugmotorenwerke Ostmark (aeroplane engine manufacturer)
• Otto Eberhard Patronenfabrik (munitions works)
• Heinkel and Messerschmitt (aeroplane factories, also a V-2 rocket fuselage factory)
• Hofherr und Schrenz
• Österreichische Sauerwerks (arms producer)
• PUCH (vehicles)
• Rax-Werke (machinery and V-2 rockets)
• Steyr (small arms factory)
• Steyr-Daimler-Puch cartel (arms and vehicles)
• Universale Hoch und Tiefbau (construction of tunnels in the Loibl Pass)

Prisoners were also 'rented out' as slave labour, and were exploited in various ways, such as working for local farms, for road construction, reinforcing and repairing the banks of the Danube, and the construction of large residential areas in Sankt Georgen^[3] as well as being forced to excavate archaeological sites in Spielberg. DEST for the Australian government department see the Department of Education Science and Training (Australia The D The Accumulatoren-Fabrik Hagen ( AFA) was a large industrial company located first in Austria and then Nazi Germany For other uses see Bayer (disambiguation or Beyer or Buyer. Bayer AG (German ˈbaɪə () is a German Deutsche Bergwerks- und Hüttenbau GmbH ( DBH, German for German Mine Construction) was a German company specializing in construction of mines and quarries Linz is the third largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria (Oberösterreich Eisenwerke Oberdonau (German for Steel Works of Upper Danube) was a large Steel and Iron producing company a holding of several steel works in southern A panzer, pronunced, is a German Tank, especially in the context of World War II. The Flugmotorenwerke Ostmark (German for Aircraft Engine Factory Eastern March) was a large German Aircraft engine supplier during the World War Otto Eberhardt Patronenfabrik ( English: Otto Eberhardt cartridge factory was a Nazi Germany munitions company Heinkel Flugzeugwerke was a German aircraft manufacturing company founded by and named after Ernst Heinkel. Messerschmitt AG was a famous German Aircraft manufacturer known primarily for its World War II Fighter aircraft, notably the Bf 109 See also Vergeltungswaffe The V-2 rocket ( Vergeltungswaffe 2 was the first Ballistic missile and first man-made object to achieve SIG SAUER ( SIGARMS until October 2007 is the US representative of Swiss/German manufacturing firm Swiss Arms AG, which was split off of Puch was a Manufacturing company located in Graz, Austria. The company was founded in 1889 by the industrialist Johann Puch and produced Raxwerke (alternatively Rax-Werke) was a major Locomotive supplier based in Wiener Neustadt in Lower Austria. Steyr is a town in the Austrian federal state of Upper Austria, located at the confluence of the rivers Steyr and Enns. Steyr-Daimler-Puch was a large Manufacturing conglomerate based in Steyr, Austria which was broken up in 1990 Loiblpass ( German) or Ljubelj ( Slovenian) (elevation 1367 m is a high Mountain pass in the Karawanken / Karavanke chain

When the Allied strategic bombing campaign started to target the German war industry, German planners decided to move production to underground facilities that were impenetrable to enemy aerial bombardment. Strategic bombing during World War II was greater in scale than any wartime attack the world had previously witnessed In Gusen I, the prisoners were ordered to build several large tunnels beneath the hills surrounding the camp (code-named Kellerbau). By the end of World War II the prisoners had dug 29,400 m² to house a small arms factory. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including In January 1944, similar tunnels were also built beneath the village of Sankt Georgen by the inmates of Gusen II sub-camp (code-named Bergkristall). They dug roughly 50,000 m² so the Messerschmitt company could build an assembly plant to produce the Messerschmitt Me 262 and V-2 rockets. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout See also Vergeltungswaffe The V-2 rocket ( Vergeltungswaffe 2 was the first Ballistic missile and first man-made object to achieve In addition to planes, some 7,000 m² of Gusen II tunnels served as factories for various war materials. ^[20][3] In late 1944, roughly 11,000 of the Gusen I and II inmates were working in underground facilities. ^[21] An additional 6,500 worked on expanding the underground network of tunnels and halls. In 1945, the Me 262 works was already finished and the Germans were able to assemble 1,250 planes a month. ^[22][3] This was the second largest plane factory in Germany after the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, which was also underground. See also Nazi concentration camps Mittelbau-Dora (also Dora and Nordhausen-Dora) was a Nazi Germany labour camp that provided ^[21]

Extermination through labour

Showers in Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp.

The political function of the camp continued in parallel with its economic role. Until at least 1942, it was used for the imprisonment and murder of Germany's political and ideological enemies, both real and imagined. ^[2][23] The camp served the needs of the German war machine and also carried out exterminations through labour. Extermination through labour (Vernichtung durch Arbeit was a Nazi German World War II principle that regulated the aims and purposes of most of their labour and When the inmates were totally exhausted, after having worked in the quarries for 12 hours a day; or if they were too ill, or too weak to work, they were then transferred to the Revier ("Krankenrevier", sick barrack) or other places for extermination. A revier (abbreviated from German Krankenrevier, or " Sick bay, Dispensary " in the language of Nazi camps was a barrack Initially, the camp did not have a gas chamber of its own and the so-called Muselmänner, or prisoners who were too sick to work, after being maltreated, under-nourished or totally exhausted, were then transferred to other concentration camps for extermination (mostly to the infamous Hartheim Castle,^[24] which was 40. A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing consisting of a sealed chamber into which a Poisonous or Asphyxiant gas is introduced Muselmann (pl Muselmänner, from the German, meaning Mussulman ( Muslim) in Polish Muzułman Schloss Hartheim was one of the Nazi " Euthanasia " killing centers where the physically and mentally disabled were killed by gassing and Lethal 7 km (25. 3 miles) away), or killed by lethal injection and cremated in the local crematorium. Cremation is the act of reducing a Corpse by burning, generally in a crematorium furnace or crematory fire The growing number of prisoners made the system too expensive and from 1940, Mauthausen was one of the few camps in the West to use a gas chamber on a regular basis. In the beginning, an improvised mobile gas chamber – a van with the exhaust pipe connected to the inside – shuttled between Mauthausen and Gusen. Mobile gas chamber, or a self-propelled gas chamber was a type of lorry or similar vehicle used in German World War II concentration camps as provisional Gas chambers for extermination Mauthausen is a small Market town in Upper Austria, Austria. It is located at about 20 kilometers east of the city of Linz, and has a population By December of 1941, a permanent gas chamber that could kill about 120 prisoners at a time was completed. ^[25][26]

Inmates

New prisoners awaiting disinfection in the courtyard of Mauthausen

See also: List of notable Mauthausen-Gusen inmates

Until early 1940, the largest group of inmates consisted of German, Austrian and Czechoslovak socialists, communists, anarchists, homosexuals, and people of Roma origin. This is a list of notable inmates who were held at the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the Means of production and distribution Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based Anarchism is a Political philosophy encompassing theories and attitudes which support the elimination of all compulsory Government, i Homosexuality refers to sexual behavior with or attraction to people of the same sex or to a Homosexual orientation. The Romani people (singular Rom, plural Roma as a Noun; also known as Romanies or Roma people) are an ethnic group with origins Other groups of people to be persecuted solely on religious grounds were the Sectarians, as they were dubbed by the Nazi regime, meaning Bible Students and Jehovah's Witnesses. Jehovah's Witnesses is a restorationist, millenialist Christian denomination The reason for their imprisonment was their total rejection of giving the loyalty oath to Hitler and their absolute refusal to participate in any kind of military service. ^[10]

In early 1940, a large number of Poles were transferred to the Mauthausen-Gusen complex. The first groups were mostly composed of artists, scientists, Boy Scouts, teachers, and university professors,^[4][27] who were arrested during the course of the AB Action. Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego ( The Polish Scouting and Guiding Association, ZHP) is the coeducational Polish Scouting organization recognized AB-Aktion or Außerordentliche Befriedungsaktion ( German for Special Pacificational Action or Operation) was a German campaign during

Later in the war, all new arrivals were from every category of the "unwanted", but educated people, and so-called political prisoners constituted the largest part of all inmates until the end of the war. During World War II, large groups of Spanish Republicans were also transferred to Mauthausen and its sub-camps. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The Spanish Civil War was a major conflict in Spain that started after an attempted Coup d'état committed by parts of the army against the government of Most of them were former Republican soldiers or activists who had fled to France after Franco's victory and then were captured by German forces after the French defeat in 1940 or handed over to the Germans by the Vichy authorities. Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco y Bahamonde (born December 4, 1892 in Ferrol, died November 20, 1975 in Madrid In World War II, the Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries Vichy France, or the Vichy regime are the common terms used to describe the government of France from July 1940 to August 1944 The largest of these groups arrived at Gusen in January of 1941. ^[28] In early 1941, almost all the Poles and Spaniards, except for a small group of specialists working in the quarry's stone mill, were transferred from Mauthausen to Gusen. ^[29] Following the outbreak of the Soviet-German War in 1941 the camps started to receive a large number of Soviet POWs. Operation Barbarossa ( Unternehmen Barbarossa) was the Codename for Nazi Germany 's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 Most of them were kept in huts separated from the rest of the camp. The Soviet prisoners of war were a major part of the first groups to be gassed in the newly-built gas chamber in early 1942. In 1944, a large group of Hungarian and Dutch Jews was also transferred to the camp. Hungary (Magyarország 'mɔɟɔrorsaːg) officially in English the Republic of Hungary ( Magyar Köztársaság, literally Magyar (Hungarian Republic The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands ^[30] Much like all the other large groups of prisoners that were transferred to Mauthausen-Gusen, most of them either died as a result of the hard labour and poor conditions, or were thrown down the sides of the Mauthausen quarry (nick-named the Parachutists' Wall by the SS guards and Kapos). The ( German for "Protective Squadron" abbreviated SS - or ( Runic)- was a major Nazi organization under Adolf Hitler and the Kapo was a term used for certain prisoners who worked inside Nazi concentration camps during World War II in various lower administrative positions This name was a sick joke because it made fun of the prisoners by calling them "Parachutists without a parachute".

Throughout the years of World War II, the camps of Mauthausen-Gusen received new prisoners in smaller transports on a daily basis; mostly from other concentration camps in German-occupied Europe. Most of the prisoners in the sub-camps of Mauthausen were kept in various detention sites prior to transportation to their final destination. The most notable of such centres for Mauthausen-Gusen were the infamous camps at Dachau and Auschwitz. Dachau was a Nazi German Concentration camp, and the first one opened in Germany located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions Factory near the "Auschwitz" redirects here For the town see Oświęcim Auschwitz-Birkenau () was the largest of Nazi Germany The first transports from Auschwitz arrived in February of 1942. The second transport in June of that year was much larger and numbered some 1,200 prisoners. Similar groups were sent from Auschwitz to Gusen and Mauthausen in April and November of 1943, and then in January and February of 1944. Finally, after Adolf Eichmann visited Mauthausen in May of that year, KZ Mauthausen-Gusen received the first group of roughly 8,000 Hungarian Jews from Auschwitz; the first group to be evacuated from that camp before the Soviet advance. Initially, the groups evacuated from Auschwitz consisted of qualified workers for the ever-growing industry of the Mauthausen-Gusen camp complex, but as the evacuation proceeded other categories of people were also transported to Mauthausen, Gusen, Vienna or Melk. Maternal embryonic leucine zipper kinase, also known as MELK, is a human Gene.

Camp file of a Polish political prisoner No. 382, Jerzy Kaźmirkiewicz

Over time, Auschwitz had to almost stop accepting new prisoners and most were directed to Mauthausen instead. Jerzy Kaźmirkiewicz (1924-1977 was a Polish scientist and university professor a specialist in Wood Industry at the Warsaw Agricultural University The last group— roughly 10,000 prisoners—was evacuated in the last wave in January of 1945, only a few weeks before the Soviet liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex. ^[31] Among them was a large group of civilians arrested by the Germans after the failure of the Warsaw Uprising,^[32] but by the liberation not more than 500 of them were still alive. The Warsaw Uprising ( Powstanie Warszawskie) was a World War II struggle by the Polish Home Army ( Armia Krajowa) to liberate Warsaw ^[33] Altogether, during the final months of the war, 23,364 prisoners from other concentration camps arrived at the camp complex. Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people commonly in large groups without trial ^[33] Many more perished during death marches, where they dropped dead because of pure exhaustion, or in railway wagons, where the prisoners were confined at sub-zero temperatures—without adequate food or water—for several days prior to their arrival. This term is also occasionally used as a popular (albeit technically incorrect title for the Funeral March movement of the Chopin Piano Sonata No Prisoner transports were considered to be less important than other important services.

Many of those who survived the journey died before they could be registered, whilst others were given the camp numbers of prisoners who had already been killed. ^[33] Most were then accommodated in the camps or in the newly-established tent camp (German: Zeltlager) just outside the Mauthausen sub-camp, where roughly 2,000 people were forced into tents intended for not more than 800 inmates, and then starved to death. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. ^[34]

As in all other German concentration camps, not all the prisoners were equal. See also List of Nazi-German concentration camps, Extermination camp Prior to and during World War II, Nazi Germany under Hitler maintained Their treatment depended largely on the category assigned to each inmate, as well as their nationality and rank within the system. Nazi concentration camp badges, primarily Triangles, were part of the system of Identification in Nazi camps. The so-called kapos, or prisoners who had been recruited by their captors to police their fellow prisoners, were given more food and higher pay in the form of concentration camp coupons which could be exchanged for cigarettes in the canteen, as well as a separate room inside most barracks. Kapo was a term used for certain prisoners who worked inside Nazi concentration camps during World War II in various lower administrative positions In addition, following Himmler's order in June, 1941, a brothel was opened for them in 1942, in the Mauthausen and Gusen I camps. Heinrich Luitpold Himmler ( 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945 was a Nazi German politician and head of the Schutzstaffel (SS. For the 2008 film of this name see The Brothel. For the television series of this name see Cathouse The Series. ^[35] The Kapos formed the main part of the so-called Prominents (German: Prominenz), or prisoners who were given a much better treatment than the average inmate. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages.

One of the barracks in Mauthausen with stones left by Jewish visitors in memory of the past

Women and children in Mauthausen-Gusen

Although the Mauthausen-Gusen camp complex was mostly a labour camp for men, a women's camp was opened in Mauthausen, in September of 1944, with the first transport of female prisoners from Auschwitz. "Auschwitz" redirects here For the town see Oświęcim Auschwitz-Birkenau () was the largest of Nazi Germany Eventually, more women and children came to Mauthausen from Ravensbruck, Bergen Belsen, Gross Rosen, and Buchenwald. Ravensbrück (ʁaːvənsˈbʁʏk was a notorious women's Concentration camp during in World War II, located in northern Germany 90 km north of Berlin Belsen redirects here For other meanings see Belsen (disambiguation. KL Gross-Rosen (Groß-Rosen was a German Concentration camp, located in Gross-Rosen, Lower Silesia (now Rogoźnica, Poland Buchenwald concentration camp (German Konzentrationslager or 'KZ' Buchenwald) was a Nazi concentration camp established on the Ettersberg (Etter Mountain near With them came some female guards. Twenty are known to have served in the Mauthausen camp, and sixty in the whole camp complex. Female guards also staffed the Mauthausen sub-camps at Hirtenberg, Lenzing (the main women's sub-camp in Austria), and St. Lambrecht. Hirtenberg is a town of 2300 inhabitants near Baden bei Wien in Lower Austria, Austria. Lenzing is a small town of approximately 5000 residents three kilometers north of Lake Attersee in Austria, It is located in the Upper Austrian part of Sankt Lambrecht is a Municipality in the District of Murau, Styria, Austria and the highest Market town in the state (1028 meters above sea The Chief Overseers at Mauthausen were firstly Margarete Freinberger, and then Jane Bernigau. Jane Bernigau (born October 5, 1908) was an SS Oberaufseherin in Nazi Concentration camps before and during Of all the female Overseers who served in Mauthausen, almost all of them were recruited between September 1944, and November 1944, from Austrian cities and towns. In early April of 1945, at least 2,500 more female prisoners came from the female sub-camps at Amstetten, St. Amstetten (amˈʃtɛtn̩ is a town in Lower Austria. It is the capital of the Amstetten District. Lambrecht, Hirtenberg, and the Flossenbürg sub-camp at Freiberg. Flossenbürg was a Nazi concentration camp built in May 1938 by the Schutzstaffel (SS Economic-Administrative Main Office at Flossenbürg, in the Freiberg (ie free mountain) is a city in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, capital of the Mittelsachsen district It is rumoured that Hildegard Lächert also served at Mauthausen. Hildegard Lächert ( January 20, 1920 – 1995 was a German Nurse and a notable female guard ( Aufseherin) at several German World ^[36]

Prisoners of Ebensee, one of the sub-camps of Mauthausen-Gusen, after liberation by the US 80th Infantry Division

The available Mauthausen inmate statistics^[37] from the spring of 1943, shows that there were 2,400 prisoners below the age of 20, which was 12. Ebensee is located in Upper Austria, Austria, at the south end of Lake Traun ( Traunsee) and has a population of about 8500 The 80th Division (Institutional Training was a formation of the United States Army. 8% of the 18,655 population. By late March of 1945, the number of juvenile prisoners in Mauthausen increased to 15,048, which was 19. 1% of the 78,547 Mauthausen inmates. The number of imprisoned children increased 6. 2 times, whereas the total number of adult prisoners during the same period multiplied by a factor of only four. These numbers reflected the increasing use of Polish, Czech, Russian, and Balkan teenagers as slave labour as the war continued. As a social-economic system slavery is a legal institution under which a Person (called "a slave" is compelled to work for another ^[38] Statistics showing the composition of juvenile inmates shortly before their liberation^[37] reveal the following major child/prisoner sub-groups: 5,809 foreign civilian labourers, 5,055 political prisoners, 3,654 Jews, and 330 Russian POWs. There were also 23 Roma children, 20 so-called "anti-social elements", 6 Spaniards, and 3 Jehovah's Witnesses. The Romani people (singular Rom, plural Roma as a Noun; also known as Romanies or Roma people) are an ethnic group with origins

The treatment of inmates and methodology of crime

Although not the only concentration camp where the German authorities implemented their extermination through labour (Vernichtung durch Arbeit), Mauthausen-Gusen was one of the most brutal and severe. Extermination through labour (Vernichtung durch Arbeit was a Nazi German World War II principle that regulated the aims and purposes of most of their labour and The conditions within the camp were considered exceptionally hard to bear, even by concentration camp standards. ^[39][40][41] The inmates suffered not only from malnutrition, overcrowded huts and constant abuse and beatings by the guards and kapos,^[29] but also from exceptionally hard labour. Malnutrition is a general term for a medical condition caused by an improper or insufficient diet. Kapo was a term used for certain prisoners who worked inside Nazi concentration camps during World War II in various lower administrative positions ^[25] As there were too many prisoners in Mauthausen to have all of them work in its quarry at the same time, many were put to work in workshops, or had to do other manual work, whilst the unfortunate ones who were selected to work in the quarry were only there because of their so-called "crimes" in the camp. The reasons for sending them to work in the "Punishment-Detail" were trivial, and included such "crimes" as not saluting a German passing by.

The work in the quarries — often in unbearable heat or in temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius^[29] — led to exceptionally high mortality rates. The Celsius Temperature scale was previously known as the centigrade scale. ^[42][41] The food rations were limited, and during the 1940–1942 period, an average inmate weighed 40 kilograms,^[43] roughly 88 pounds. It is estimated that the average energy content of food rations dropped from about 1,750 calories a day during the 1940–1942 period, to between 1,150 and 1,460 during the next period. In 1945, the energy content was even lower and did not exceed 600 to 1,000 calories a day; that is less than a third of the energy needed by an average worker in heavy industry. Heavy industry does not have a single fixed meaning as compared to Light industry. ^[1] This led to the starvation of thousands of inmates.

The inmates of Mauthausen, Gusen I, and Gusen II had access to a separate sub-camp for the sick — the so-called Krankenlager. Despite the fact that (roughly) 100 medics from among the inmates were working there,^[44] they were not given any medication and could offer only basic first aid. ^[44][4] Thus the hospital camp – as it was called by the German authorities – was, in fact, the last stop before death for thousands of inmates, and very few had a chance to recover.

A list of the dead (click the image for a translation)

Survivors of Gusen shortly after their liberation

The rock-quarry in Mauthausen was at the base of the infamous "Stairs of Death". Prisoners were forced to carry roughly-hewn blocks of stone — often weighing as much as 50 kilograms — up the 186 stairs - one behind the other. As a result, many exhausted prisoners collapsed in front of the other prisoners in the line, and then fell on top of the other prisoners, creating a horrific domino effect; the first prisoner falling onto the next, and so on, all the way down the stairs. Dominoes (or "dominos" generally refers to the individual or collective gaming pieces making up a domino set (sometimes called a deck or pack ^[45]

Such brutality was not accidental. The SS guards would often force prisoners — exhausted from hours of hard labour without sufficient food and water — to race up the stairs carrying blocks of stone. Those who survived the ordeal would often be placed in a line-up at the edge of a cliff known as "The Parachute Wall" (German: Fallschirmspringerwand). The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. ^[46] At gun-point each prisoner would have the option of being shot, or to push the prisoner in front of them off of the cliff. ^[12] Other common methods of extermination of prisoners, who were either sick, unfit for further labour or as a means of collective responsibility or after escape attempts included:

• Being beaten to death (by the SS and Kapos)
• Icy showers - some 3,000 inmates died of hypothermia - after having being forced to take an icy cold shower - and who were then left outside in cold weather. Collective responsibility is a concept or doctrine according to which individuals are to be held responsible for other people's actions by tolerating ignoring or harboring them without Hypothermia is a condition in which an organism's temperature drops below that required for normal Metabolism and bodily functions ^[47]
• Mass-shootings
• Medical experiments
  • Aribert Heim, dubbed Doctor Death by the inmates, was there for seven weeks, which was enough to carry out his experiments^[48]
  • Another of the Nazi scientists to perform experiments on the inmates was Karl Gross, who purposely infected hundreds of prisoners with cholera and typhus in order to test his experimental vaccines on them. Aribert Heim (born) is a former Austrian doctor also known as "Dr Dr Death may refer to Dennis Allen, Melbourne drug dealer Aribert Heim, Austrian doctor and one of the world's most wanted Nazi war criminals Cholera, sometimes known as Asiatic cholera or epidemic cholera, is an infectious Gastroenteritis caused by the Bacterium Typhus is any of several similar diseases caused by Louse -borne bacteria Between February 5, 1942, and mid-April of 1944, more than 1,500 prisoners were killed as a result of his experiments^[49]
• Hanging
• Starvation
• Injections of phenol. Events 1576 - Henry of Navarre converts to Roman Catholicism in order to ensure his right to the throne of France. Year 1942 ( MCMXLII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Phenol, is a toxic colourless Crystalline Solid with a sweet tarry odor commonly referred to as a "hospital smell" (A group of 2,000 prisoners who applied to be transferred to the sanatorium were declared mentally sick and were killed by Dr. Ramsauer in the course of the H-13 action)^[47]
• Drowning in large barrels of water (Gusen II)^[50][51]
• Beating to death or starving to death in bunkers^[52]
• Throwing the prisoners on the 380 volt electric barbed wire fence^[52]
• Forcing prisoners outside the boundaries of the camp and then shooting them on the pretense (pretence) that they were attempting to escape^[53]

After the war one of the survivors, Dr. H13, H-13 or H13 may refer to H-13 (Michigan county highway Highway H13 (Ukraine, a road in Ukraine The volt (symbol V) is the SI derived unit of electric Potential difference or Electromotive force. Antoni Gościński reported 62 ways of murdering people in the camps of Gusen I and Mauthausen. Antoni Gościński was a Polish medic During the World War II he was arrested by the Germans in the course of the AB Action and imprisoned in Mauthausen-Gusen ^[47] Hans Maršálek estimated that an average life expectancy of newly-arrived prisoners in Gusen varied from 6 months between 1940 and 1942, to less than 3 months in early 1945. Life expectancy is the average number of years of life remaining at a given age ^[54]

Paradoxically, with the growth of forced labour industry in various sub-camps of Mauthausen-Gusen, the situation of some of the prisoners improved significantly. While the food rations were increasingly limited every month, the heavy industry necessitated skilled specialists rather than unqualified workers and the brutality of the camp's SS and Kapos was limited. While the prisoners were still beaten on the daily basis and the Muselmänner were still exterminated, from early 1943 on some of the factory workers were allowed to receive food parcels from their families (mostly Poles and Frenchmen). This allowed many of them not only to evade the risk of starvation, but also to help other prisoners who had no relatives outside the camps — or were not allowed to receive parcels. ^[55]

Death toll

Because the Germans destroyed much of the camp's files and evidence and often gave newly-arrived prisoners the camp numbers of those who had already been killed,^[25] the exact death toll of the Mauthausen-Gusen complex is impossible to calculate. The matter is further complicated due to some of the inmates of Gusen being murdered in Mauthausen, and at least 3,423 sent to Hartheim Castle, 40. 7 km (25. 3 miles) away. Also, several thousands were killed in mobile gas chambers, without any mention of the exact number of victims in the surviving files. ^[57] The SS, before their escape from the camps on May 4, 1945, tried to destroy the evidence, allowing approximately only 40,000 victims to be identified. Events 1256 - The Augustinian monastic order is constituted at the Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV Year 1945 ( MCMXLV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar During the first days after the liberation, the camp's main chancellery was seized by the members of a Polish inmate resistance organization; secured against the wishes of other inmates, who wanted to burn it. ^[58] After the war, the main chancellery was brought by one of the survivors to Poland, then passed to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum in Oświęcim. "Auschwitz" redirects here For the town see Oświęcim Auschwitz-Birkenau () was the largest of Nazi Germany Oświęcim (Auschwitz Yiddish Oshpitsin אָשפּיצין Romany: Aushvitsa, Osvyenchim, Czech: Osvětim ^[59][60] Parts of the death register of Gusen I camp were secured by the Polish inmates, who took it to Australia after the war. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. In 1969 the files were given to the International Red Cross Tracing Bureau. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is an International humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers worldwide who stated ^[57]

The surviving camp archives include personal files of 37,411 murdered prisoners, including 22,092 Poles, 5,024 Spaniards, 2,843 Soviet prisoners of war and 7,452 inmates of 24 other nationalities. ^[61] The surviving parts of the death register of KZ Gusen list an additional 30,536 names.

Apart from the surviving camp files of the sub-camps of Mauthausen, the main documents used for an estimation of the death toll of the camp complexes are:

1. A report by Józef Żmij, a survivor who had been working in the Gusen I camp's chancellery. Józef Żmij was a Polish soldier and politician in the period before the World War II. His report is based on personally-made copies of yearly reports from the period between 1940 and 1944, and the camps commander's daily reports for the period between January 1, 1945, and the day of the liberation. New Year See also New Year The Ancient Romans began their consular year on January 1st since 153 BC Year 1945 ( MCMXLV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar
2. Original death register for the sub-camp of Gusen held by the International Red Cross
3. Personal notes of Stanisław Nogaj, another inmate who had been working in the chancellery of Gusen
4. Death register prepared by the SS chief medic of the Mauthausen main chancellery for the sub-camps of Gusen (similar records for the Mauthausen sub-camp itself were destroyed)

Because of that the exact death toll of the entire Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp system varies considerably from source to source. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is an International humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers worldwide who stated Stanisław Nogaj was a Polish journalist and writer from Silesia. Various scholars place it at between 122,766^[62] and 320,000,^[47] with other numbers also frequently quoted being 200,000^[63] and "over 150,000". ^[64]

Various historians place the total death toll in the four main camps of Mauthausen, Gusen I, Gusen II and Gusen III at between 55,000^[25] and 60,000. ^[65] In addition, during the first month after the liberation additional 1042 prisoners died in American field hospitals. ^[66]

Out of approximately 320,000 prisoners who were incarcerated in various sub-camps of KZ Mauthausen-Gusen throughout the war, only approximately 80,000 survived,^[67] including between 20,487^[66] and 21,386^[68] in Gusen I, II and III.

Liberation and post-war heritage

A chart representing the nationality of the surviving inmates of Gusen I, II and III[68] click the image for more details

Some of the bodies being removed by German civilians for decent burial at Gusen concentration camp after its liberation

Tanks of U.S. 11th Armored Division entering the Mauthausen concentration camp; banner in Spanish. The photo was taken on May 6, 1945

During the final months before liberation, the camp's commander Franz Ziereis prepared for its defence against a possible Soviet offensive. Events 1527 - Spanish and German troops sack Rome; some consider this the end of the Renaissance. Year 1945 ( MCMXLV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar Franz Ziereis (1905-1945 was the commandant of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp at the time it was liberated Most of the inmates of German and Austrian nationality "volunteered" for the SS-Freiwillige Häftlingsdivision, an SS unit composed mostly of former concentration camp inmates and headed by Oskar Dirlewanger. Oskar Dirlewanger ( September 26, 1895 Würzburg - June 5, 1945 Altshausen) was a World War II officer with The remaining prisoners were rushed to build a line of granite anti-tank obstacles to the east of Mauthausen. The inmates unable to cope with the hard labour and malnutrition were exterminated in large numbers to free space for newly-arrived evacuation transports from other camps, including most of the sub-camps of Mauthausen-Gusen located in eastern Austria. In the final months of the war, the main source of calories, that is the parcels of food sent through the International Red Cross, stopped and food rations became catastrophically low. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is an International humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers worldwide who stated The prisoners transferred to the "Hospital Sub-camp" received one piece of bread per 20 inmates and roughly half a litre of weed soup a day. ^[69] This made some of the prisoners, previously engaged in various types of resistance activity, begin to prepare plans to defend the camp in case of an SS attempt to exterminate all the remaining inmates. It is not known why the prisoners of Gusen I and II were not exterminated en-masse, despite direct orders from Heinrich Himmler; Ziereis' plan assumed rushing all the prisoners into the tunnels of the underground factories of Kellerbau and blowing up the entrances. Heinrich Luitpold Himmler ( 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945 was a Nazi German politician and head of the Schutzstaffel (SS. The plan was known to one of the Polish resistance organizations which started an ambitious plan of gathering tools necessary to dig air vents in the entrances.

On April 28, under cover of a fictional air-raid alarm, some 22,000 prisoners of Gusen were rushed into the tunnels. Events 1192 - Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat (Conrad I King of Jerusalem, in Tyre, two days after his title However, after several hours in the tunnels all of the prisoners were allowed to return to the camp. Stanisław Dobosiewicz, the author of a monumental monograph of the Mauthausen-Gusen complex explains that one of the possible causes of the failure of the German plan was that the Polish prisoners managed to cut the fuse wires. Stanisław Dobosiewicz (1910 - 2007 was a Polish writer and school teacher Ziereis himself stated in his testimony written on May 25 that it was his wife who convinced him not to follow the order from above. Events 1085 - Alfonso VI of Castile takes Toledo Spain back from the Moors. ^[70] Although the plan was abandoned, the prisoners feared that the SS might want to massacre the prisoners by other means. Because of that the Polish, Soviet and French prisoners prepared a plan for an assault on the barracks of the SS guards in order to seize the arms necessary to put up a fight. A similar plan was also devised by the Spanish inmates. ^[70]

On May 3, the SS and other guards started to prepare for evacuation of the camp. Events 1491 - Kongo monarch Nkuwu Nzinga is baptised by Portuguese missionaries adopting the baptismal name of João The following day, the guards of Mauthausen were replaced with unarmed Volkssturm soldiers and an improvised unit formed of elderly police officers and fire fighters evacuated from Vienna. The Volkssturm (lit "Folkstorm" "People's" or "National Militia" Sturm lit The police officer in charge of the unit accepted the "inmate self-government" as the camp's highest authority and Martin Gerken, until then the highest-ranking kapo prisoner in the Gusen's administration (in the rank of Lagerälteste, or the Camp's Elder), became the new de facto commander. Martin Gerken was a German communist and one of the highest-ranking Kapos in the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. He attempted to create an International Prisoner Committee that would become a provisional governing body of the camp until it was liberated by one of the approaching armies, but he was openly accused of co-operation with the SS and the plan failed. All work in the sub-camps of Mauthausen stopped and the inmates focused on preparations for their liberation - or defence of the camps against a possible assault by the SS divisions concentrated in the area. ^[70] The remnants of several German divisions indeed assaulted the Mauthausen sub-camp, but were repelled by the prisoners who took over the camp. ^[8] Out of all the main sub-camps of Mauthausen-Gusen only Gusen III was to be evacuated. On May 1 the inmates were rushed on a death march towards Sankt Georgen, but were ordered to return to the camp after several hours. Events 305 - Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman Emperor. This term is also occasionally used as a popular (albeit technically incorrect title for the Funeral March movement of the Chopin Piano Sonata No In Austria in Carinthia Sankt Georgen am Längsee in the district St The operation was repeated the following day, but called off soon afterwards. The following day, the SS guards deserted the camp, leaving the prisoners to their fate. ^[70]

The survivors of Ebensee sub-camp shortly after their liberation

The camps of Mauthausen-Gusen were the last to be liberated during the World War II. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including On May 5, 1945, the camp at Mauthausen was approached by soldiers of the 41st Recon Squad of the US 11th Armored Division, 3rd US Army. Events 553 - The Second Council of Constantinople begins 1215 - Rebel Barons renounce their allegiance to King John Year 1945 ( MCMXLV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar United States Army Central, formerly the Third United States Army was a field army of the United States Army. The reconnaissance squad was led by S/SGT Albert J. Kosiek. His troop disarmed the policemen and left the camp. By the time of its liberation, most of the SS-men of Mauthausen had already fled; however, some 30 who were left were killed by the prisoners;^[71] a similar number were killed in Gusen II. ^[71] By May 6 all the remaining sub-camps of the Mauthausen-Gusen camp complex, with the exception of the two camps in the Loibl Pass, were also liberated by American forces. Events 1527 - Spanish and German troops sack Rome; some consider this the end of the Renaissance. Loiblpass ( German) or Ljubelj ( Slovenian) (elevation 1367 m is a high Mountain pass in the Karawanken / Karavanke chain

Among the inmates liberated from the camp was Lieutenant Jack Taylor, an officer of the Office of Strategic Services. Jack Taylor is the name of the following notable people Jack Taylor (19th century baseball player (1873-1900 Jack Taylor (20th century baseball The Office of Strategic Services ( OSS) was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. ^[72] He had managed to survive with the help of several prisoners and was later a key witness at the Mauthausen-Gusen camp trials carried out by the Dachau International Military Tribunal. The Mauthausen-Gusen camp trials were a set of two consecutive trials of the German World War II criminals carried over by the Dachau International Military Tribunal The Dachau Trials were proceedings against minor war criminals found in the United States sectors of occupation in Germany and Austria and those accused of committing war crimes against ^[73] Another of the camp's survivors was Simon Wiesenthal, an engineer who spent the rest of his life hunting Nazi war criminals. Simon Wiesenthal ( Buczacz, December 31, 1908 &ndash Vienna, September 20, 2005) was an Austrian Jewish War crimes are "violations of the laws or customs of war" including but not limited to "murder the ill-treatment or deportation of civilian residents of an occupied

Memorial

Following the capitulation of Germany, the Mauthausen-Gusen complex fell within the Soviet sector of occupation of Austria. In 1938 the First Austrian Republic had become part of Nazi Germany through an enforced annexation the Anschluss. Initially, the Soviet authorities used parts of the Mauthausen and Gusen I camps as barracks for the Red Army. Barracks are living quarters for personnel on a Military post The Red Army ( Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия R aboche- K rest'yanskaya K rasnaya A rmiya At the same time, the underground factories were being dismantled and sent to the USSR as a war booty. After that, between 1946 and 1947, the camps were unguarded and many furnishings and facilities of the camp were dismantled, both by the Red Army and by the local population. In the early summer of 1947, the Soviet forces had blown the tunnels up and were then withdrawn from the area, while the camp was turned over to Austrian civilian authorities. However, it was not until 1949 that it was declared a national memorial site. A memorial is an object which serves as a memory of something usually a person (who has died or an event Finally, 30 years after camp's liberation, on May 3, 1975, Chancellor Bruno Kreisky officially opened the Mauthausen Museum. Events 1491 - Kongo monarch Nkuwu Nzinga is baptised by Portuguese missionaries adopting the baptismal name of João Year 1975 ( MCMLXXV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Bruno Kreisky ( January 22 1911 July 29 1990) served as Chancellor of Austria from 1970 to 1983 ^[2] Unlike Mauthausen, much of what constituted the sub-camps of Gusen I, II and III is now covered by residential areas built there after the war. ^[74]

Notes and references

See also

• List of subcamps of Mauthausen
• List of Nazi-German concentration camps
• Dachau International Military Tribunal
• Mauthausen-Gusen camp trials

Further reading

External links

• Mauthausen-Gusen Memorial
• Mauthausen-Synopsis Shoaheducation.com
• KZ Gusen Memorial Committee
• Audiowalk Gusen
• Map of the Mauthausen-Gusen complex (Google Maps)
• Photos of the Mauthausen-Gusen camps
• USHMM United States Holocaust Memorial Museum contains more than 500 pictures of Mauthausen-Gusen
• http://www.remember.org/camps/mauthausen/
• Literary research project on texts by survivors
• The blog of a grandson of the victims of the Shoah Private visit - Aug 2007