Austria's Concentration Camps: A Dark History Revisited

Austria was annexed to Germany in 1938, and the Mauthausen concentration camp was established shortly after. Located near the village of Mauthausen, on the Danube River, 12 miles (20 km) east of Linz, it was one of the most brutal and severe Nazi concentration camps. It was liberated by the American 11th Armored Division on May 5, 1945, and is now a museum.

Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp complex

The Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp complex was established in 1938 near the city of Linz in Upper Austria. It was founded on the orders of Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler as part of an expansion of the Nazi concentration camp network. Mauthausen was one of the worst of these camps, with a reputation for extreme lethality. The complex included the main camp at Mauthausen and nearly 100 subcamps throughout Austria and southern Germany. The three Gusen concentration camps, in particular, held a significant proportion of prisoners.

The Mauthausen main camp was established on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen, roughly 20 kilometres (12 mi) east of Linz. The site was chosen due to its proximity to a granite quarry and the city of Linz. The first prisoners, all men, were transferred from the Dachau concentration camp on 8 August 1938, and they were forced to build their own camp and set up operations in the quarry. The daily lives of these prisoners were marked by hunger, arbitrary treatment, and violence.

In December 1939, the SS ordered the construction of a second concentration camp just a few kilometres from Mauthausen. The Gusen branch camp, located in the village of St. Georgen/Gusen, officially began operations in May 1940. The Gusen camps held a significant number of prisoners, sometimes exceeding the number at the Mauthausen main camp.

After the outbreak of World War II, people from across Europe were deported to Mauthausen, and the complex evolved into a network of interconnected camps. Mauthausen and Gusen were known for their harsh imprisonment conditions and high mortality rates. Prisoners faced constant hunger, arbitrary treatment, and violence. Those who were ill or deemed 'useless' were in constant danger.

In 1941, the SS began constructing a gas chamber at Mauthausen for the systematic murder of large groups of people. During the second half of the war, women were imprisoned in the camps for the first time, and prisoners of all genders were increasingly utilised as forced labourers in the arms industry.

As the war progressed, the Mauthausen-Gusen complex expanded further. Additional subcamps were built to accommodate the growing number of slave workers. By the end of the war, the complex included 101 camps, covering most of modern-day Austria. The production output of Mauthausen and its subcamps exceeded that of other large slave labour centres, making it one of the most profitable concentration camps in Nazi Germany.

The liberation of the Mauthausen-Gusen complex began on 5 May 1945 when the US Army reached Gusen and Mauthausen. However, due to their weakened state, many prisoners still died in the days and weeks following liberation. Of the approximately 190,000 people imprisoned in the complex, at least 90,000 lost their lives.

Mauthausen camp conditions

The Mauthausen concentration camp was established in 1938 near the city of Linz in Upper Austria. It was founded on the orders of Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler, along with Flossenbürg and Ravensbrück, as part of an expansion of the Nazi concentration camp network.

Mauthausen was one of the worst of the Nazi concentration camps. The camp was built and operated as a site of slave labour, with inmates forced to work in nearby granite quarries and other facilities. The conditions at Mauthausen were even more severe than at most other Nazi concentration camps, with malnutrition, arbitrary treatment, violence, and exceptionally hard labour leading to high mortality rates.

Inmates suffered from hunger and violence at the hands of guards and kapos (prisoners recruited to police their fellow inmates). They were subjected to constant abuse, beatings, and exceptionally hard labour, including in the quarries, where they were forced to carry large blocks of stone up the 186 steps of the "Stairs of Death". The food rations were extremely limited, leading to the starvation of thousands of inmates. The average energy content of food rations was estimated to be less than a third of the energy needed by an average worker in heavy industry.

The camp was also a site of systematic murder, with the SS using methods such as lethal injections, gassing, hangings, mass shootings, and hypothermia (by forcing inmates to take icy showers and then leaving them outside in cold weather) to kill prisoners. During the final months of the war, overcrowding, lack of food, and rampant disease led to mass death among the prisoners.

Overall, out of a total of around 190,000 people imprisoned in the Mauthausen concentration camp and its nearly 100 subcamps, at least 90,000 died. The conditions at Mauthausen were characterised by brutality, dehumanisation, and a complete disregard for human life.

Gusen I, II, and III sub-camps

Gusen I, II, and III were sub-camps of the Mauthausen concentration camp, located between the villages of Sankt Georgen an der Gusen and Langenstein in Upper Austria. Gusen was initially established as a sub-camp of Mauthausen in December 1939, with the camp opening on 25 May 1940. The SS-owned firm Deutsche Erd- und Steinwerke (DESt-German Earth and Stone Works) managed the site, with prisoners working in nearby quarries to produce granite.

The conditions at Gusen were worse than at Mauthausen, with a life expectancy of prisoners as short as six months. Gusen was a site of extermination through forced labour, with prisoners facing starvation, mass executions, and brutal treatment by SS officers and kapos. The camp was also a site of medical experimentation, with SS physicians conducting experiments on prisoners and providing cadavers for the SS Medical Academy in Graz.

The expansion of armaments production at Gusen led to the establishment of Gusen II and Gusen III. Gusen II was located close to Gusen I, separated only by a potato field, and was dedicated to arms construction. Gusen III was located in the town of Lungitz, where prisoners worked in a brick factory and produced parts for Messerschmitt.

The number of prisoners at Gusen increased significantly in 1944 and 1945, with the arrival of prisoners from other camps, including Auschwitz, Gross-Rosen, and Sachsenhausen. By the end of 1944, there were a total of 24,250 prisoners in the three Gusen sub-camps. The death rate at Gusen was extremely high, with over 35,000 people dying at the camp.

On 5 May 1945, the Gusen sub-camps were liberated by the US 11th Armored Division. In the chaos of liberation, several former kapos were killed by surviving inmates seeking revenge.

Austrian involvement in Nazi crimes

Austria was part of Nazi Germany from 13 March 1938 until 27 April 1945. During this time, Austrians participated in the Nazi administration, from death camp personnel to senior Nazi leadership. The majority of the bureaucrats who implemented the Final Solution were Austrian. Austrians comprised 8% of Nazi Germany's population, 13% of the SS, and 40% of the staff at death camps; 75% of concentration camp commanders were Austrian.

The Mauthausen concentration camp, established in 1938 near Linz in Upper Austria, was one of the worst of the Nazi concentration camps. It was founded on the orders of Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler as part of an expansion of the concentration camp network. Mauthausen was the destination for evacuations from camps near the front line in the final months of the war. Tens of thousands of prisoners arrived, and overcrowding, lack of food, and rampant disease led to mass death before liberation.

After World War II, many Austrians sought comfort in the myth of Austria as the first victim of the Nazis. The "victim theory" insisted that all Austrians, including those who strongly supported Hitler, had been unwilling victims of the Nazi regime and were therefore not responsible for its crimes. This myth allowed former Nazis to be brought back into social and political life and enabled the denial of justice for the actual victims of Nazism.

It was not until the 1980s and 1990s, following the election of former Wehrmacht intelligence officer Kurt Waldheim as federal president and subsequent international isolation, that Austria began to reconsider its attitude toward the past. Austrians gradually started to acknowledge their collective responsibility for the crimes committed during the Nazi occupation and officially abandoned the "victim theory".

Liebenau labour camp

The Liebenau labour camp was the largest Nazi forced labour camp within the city limits of Graz, Austria. It was part of a network of camps for foreign forced labourers during the National Socialist era. The camp had a capacity of around 5,000 male and female forced workers, who were made to work under inhumane conditions.

In April 1945, the Liebenau camp served as a stopover for the evacuation marches of Hungarian Jews from the "Southeast Wall" towards the Mauthausen concentration camp. During this time, dozens of Hungarian Jews were denied food and medication and forced to sleep outside in the cold. Many were shot dead, and others died of exhaustion, hunger and cold. The terror and draconian system of punishment in the camp, which included forced abortions, have been well-documented in academic research.

In the decades following World War II, housing estates and a nursery school were built over large parts of the former camp. In the 1990s, human remains were discovered during construction work, but this did not lead to further investigations. However, the issue of the camp's history has gained new relevance with construction work taking place nearby. Archaeologists from the Federal Monuments Office are monitoring the construction work, and a study of the history of the camp has been commissioned in cooperation with the city of Graz.

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