Concentration Camps Near Salzburg: A Dark History Unveiled

The Mauthausen concentration camp was located 120 kilometres from Salzburg, near the village of Mauthausen on the Danube River, 20 kilometres east of Linz, Austria. It was one of the largest labour camp complexes in Nazi Germany, with over 40 sub-camps. Between 1938 and 1945, about 200,000 people were imprisoned at Mauthausen and at least half of them were murdered. The camp was liberated by the United States Army on 5 May 1945. After World War II, Salzburg became home to displaced persons camps for Jews who could not or would not return to their former homelands.

The Mauthausen concentration camp

Mauthausen was a German Nazi concentration camp located on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen, roughly 20 kilometres (12 miles) east of Linz in Upper Austria. It was established in April 1938, shortly after Austria was annexed to Nazi Germany.

Mauthausen was the main camp of a group with nearly 100 further subcamps located throughout Austria and southern Germany. The three Gusen concentration camps in and around the village of St. Georgen/Gusen, just a few kilometres from Mauthausen, held a significant proportion of prisoners within the camp complex.

The Mauthausen main camp operated from 8 August 1938 to 5 May 1945, when it was liberated by the United States Army. The camp was controlled by the German state from the beginning, but it was founded by a private company as an economic enterprise. The site was chosen because of the nearby granite quarry and its proximity to Linz.

Mauthausen initially served as a strictly-run prison camp for common criminals, prostitutes, and other categories of "incorrigible law offenders". On 8 May 1939, it was converted into a labour camp for political prisoners. During its first year, the camp received prisoners transferred from Dachau, mainly convicted criminals, but also so-called "asocial elements", including political prisoners, homosexuals, and others.

The camp later became a detention centre for anti-Nazis from all over Europe, including 10,000 Spanish Republicans. In November 1941, Soviet prisoners of war began arriving. The first Jews arrived in May 1941, but Jews were a small minority of the camp prisoners until 1944, when Jews from Poland and Hungary greatly increased the camp population.

The conditions at Mauthausen were even more severe than at most other Nazi concentration camps. Half of the 190,000 inmates died at Mauthausen or its subcamps. Prisoners suffered from malnutrition, overcrowded huts, and constant abuse and beatings by the guards and kapos (prisoners who had been recruited to police their fellow prisoners). They were also forced to perform exceptionally hard labour, especially in the local quarries.

The rock quarry in Mauthausen was at the base of the "Stairs of Death", where prisoners were forced to carry roughly hewn blocks of stone weighing as much as 50 kilograms up 186 stairs. As a result, many exhausted prisoners collapsed in front of the others, creating a domino effect.

Mauthausen was one of the most brutal and severe Nazi concentration camps. The Nazis used the camp not only for imprisonment but also for the systematic murder of large groups of people. The SS fled Mauthausen shortly before American troops entered the camp on 5 May 1945.

The Gusen branch camp

The Gusen concentration camp was a sub-camp of the Mauthausen concentration camp, located between the villages of Sankt Georgen an der Gusen and Langenstein, in Upper Austria, a few kilometres from the main camp. The Gusen camp was initially conceived to have a capacity of around 6,000 inmates, larger than the main camp in Mauthausen. The SS transferred mainly Polish and Spanish prisoners from Mauthausen to Gusen, where they were used as forced labourers in the quarries.

In 1941, the number of deaths in the Gusen branch camp was several times higher than in Mauthausen. Thousands of prisoners were killed systematically or died as a result of the inhumane conditions. The camp was redesignated Gusen I, and additional camps, Gusen II and Gusen III, were built to expand armaments production for companies like Messerschmitt and Steyr-Daimler-Puch.

The SS began using prisoners to dig tunnels in the surrounding mountainsides in late 1943. The intention was to build bomb-proof sites to protect factories from Allied air raids. A giant underground construction project was initiated in St. Georgen an der Gusen, a few kilometres from the Gusen camp, with the code name 'Bergkristall'. This project was intended to protect the production of Messerschmitt Me 262 fighter jets. Up to 6,000 concentration camp prisoners worked on this construction site at any given time, enduring constant abuse and working around the clock.

Gusen II was created in March 1944 to house the growing number of prisoners needed for tunnel construction and aircraft production. The living conditions in this camp were described by many survivors as the most catastrophic they had experienced. At least 8,600 prisoners were murdered or died as a result of the harsh conditions in Gusen II.

The Gusen concentration camp held around 71,000 people from across Europe, including Poland, the Soviet Union, France, Italy, Spain, and the German Reich. Of these, approximately 36,000 people perished. The camp was liberated by the US Army on 5 May 1945.

The use of forced labour in the arms industry

I could not find specific information on concentration camps around Salzburg, Austria. However, I did find information on the Mauthausen concentration camp, which was located 12 miles (20 km) east of Linz, Austria, and had several subcamps across the country.

During World War II, the Nazi leadership developed a plan to utilise concentration camp prisoners in German war industries to address labour shortages. This shift in the function of concentration camps placed greater emphasis on economic output rather than solely repression. A key figure in this development was Oswald Pohl, head of the SS Economic and Administrative Office, who, in April 1942, ordered a shift in focus to mobilise all prisoner labour for war tasks.

In 1942, only around eight per cent of the prisoners at Mauthausen were engaged in arms production. However, this changed after Albert Speer, the Reich Minister for Armaments and War Production, visited the camp in the spring of 1943 and demanded the complete integration of all prisoners into war production. Arms-producing companies could then request prisoners as labourers from the SS, who would typically build a subcamp at the production site. The companies were responsible for providing food for the inmates and paying the SS a fee for each prisoner.

The SS distributed concentration camp prisoners to subcamps across large parts of Austria. Initially, they were predominantly used for constructing transport routes, power stations, and factories. However, they eventually transitioned to forced labour in arms production itself. From the end of 1943, thousands of prisoners were forced to build underground production sites to protect them from air raids.

Shared economic interests and personal relationships between company managers and Nazi functionaries played a significant role in the deployment of concentration camp prisoners. Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG, the largest arms company in Austria, was the first firm to use concentration camp prisoners as forced labourers. They established a subcamp of Mauthausen in Steyr-Münichholz in March 1942 and later used prisoners in several other locations for arms manufacturing. Messerschmitt GmbH Regensburg and Heinkel AG, major producers of fighter jets and planes, also utilised concentration camp prisoners in their production processes.

The liberation of the camp by the US Army

The liberation of the Mauthausen concentration camp by the US Army on 5 May 1945 brought an end to the horrors endured by the inmates and marked a significant moment in the history of World War II.

The Final Months Before Liberation

In the months leading up to liberation, the camp's commander, Franz Ziereis, prepared for its defence against a possible Soviet offensive. The remaining prisoners were forced to build granite anti-tank obstacles, and those who couldn't keep up with the demanding labour were exterminated to make room for new arrivals from other camps. The main source of food, parcels from the International Red Cross, stopped, and rations became dangerously low.

The Arrival of the US Army

On May 3rd, the SS and other guards began evacuating the camp, and the following day, they were replaced by unarmed Volkssturm soldiers and an improvised unit of elderly police officers and firefighters. The police officer in charge accepted the "inmate self-government" as the highest authority, and a prisoner named Martin Gerken became the de facto commander. However, his attempts to create a governing body were met with accusations of collaboration with the SS.

Liberation and Aftermath

On May 5, 1945, a squad of US Army soldiers from the 41st Reconnaissance Squadron of the 11th Armored Division, 3rd US Army, led by Staff Sergeant Albert J. Kosiek, reached the camp. By then, most of the guards had fled, and around 30 of those who remained were killed by the prisoners. Similar scenes played out at Gusen II, where an equal number of SS guards met their end.

The liberation of the camp was a profound and emotional moment for those who had endured unimaginable suffering. The US Army found the inmates in a weakened state, with many still dying in the days and weeks that followed due to the harsh conditions they had endured. Of the approximately 190,000 people imprisoned in Mauthausen and its sub-camps, at least 90,000 lost their lives.

The liberation of Mauthausen marked a turning point, bringing an end to the atrocities committed within its walls and allowing the survivors to begin the long journey of healing and rebuilding their lives.

The memorial site

The Mauthausen Memorial Site is located on a hill near the town of Mauthausen, 20 kilometres east of Linz, the capital of the Austrian state of Oberösterreich (Upper Austria). The location was chosen for its granite quarries, which were needed for Hitler's plans to transform Linz into a Führerstadt (leader city).

Admission to the memorial site is free, but an audio guide, available for €3, or a free downloadable app, is recommended for context. A public guided tour is also available for €5 and happens once or twice a day. Group tours can also be booked in advance.

The Mauthausen concentration camp was one of the most brutal and severe Nazi camps. It was established in 1938, shortly after Austria was annexed to Nazi Germany, as a satellite of the Dachau camp. It later became an independent camp operated by the SS and acquired satellite camps of its own, with nearly 100 subcamps located throughout Austria and southern Germany. The camp provided slave labour for the nearby stone quarries and various industries.

During its operation, about 200,000 prisoners passed through Mauthausen, with approximately 120,000 dying, mainly from starvation, disease, and the hardships of labour. The camp had a gas chamber, and from April 1944 to January 1945, gas chambers at the nearby Hartheim Castle were also used to kill prisoners. The SS fled Mauthausen shortly before American troops entered and liberated the camp on May 5, 1945.

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