Today we took a trip to the Nazi Concentration Camp Mauthausen. It is hard to believe that just over 60 years ago so many people died there at the hands of the Nazi guards. The concentration camp was tucked up on a hillside in the beautiful rolling hills of Austria.
Mauthausen is located in upper Austria between the two villages of Mauthausen and Gusen. Under Nazi control this labor camp grew into one of the largest camps in the Nazi controlled zone. They practiced the belief of extermination through labor and made their prisoners work in quarries and arms factories. It was one of the first large scale concentration camp and was the largest labour camp by 1940. It is estimated that around 320,000 people died at this camp. It was labeled by the Nazi government as a “Grade III camp” which meant it was for the highest level enemies of the state.
Mauthausen complex:
The visit to Mauthausen was very intense. It is hard to comprehend the amount of people that lost their lives at this facility. The treatment of the prisoners and the conditions they had to live in is mind numbing. It makes me feel sick to my stomach just thinking about it.
For living quarters the prisoners slept in large barracks. Each of these barracks were full of bunk beds. In each of these small bunk beds slept 6 prisoners (3 on each level). The prisoners who lived in the barrack were starved even though the official's had enough food to go around.
Barrack:
The crematorium of Mauthausen is where they would burn the bodies of the dead. Today the room is filled with pictures of the dead and also contains the oven where they would burn the bodies. Our tour guide said that when new prisoners were brought to the camp they would have to stand for days at a time on a wall called the “wailing wall”. On this wall they would be tortured and SS officers would tell them, “This is the way in, and that’s (crematorium) is the way out.” While in the crematorium room I was taken aback when I saw this man smiling and taking a picture in front of the crematorium. To me this place is very sad and solemn and to see a man take a picture in front of it felt very disrespectful to all the dead.
Crematorium:
Though Mauthausen was a labor camp it still had a gas chamber. This gas chamber was alot smaller then the one at other extermination camps. It was very eree to walk into this little room. So many people died there at the hands of the Nazi’s.
After walking away from the camp itself we walked over to the Quarries. In the Quarries the prisoners would have to preform hard labor. They were force to mine the rock and take it back to the camp. In order to get to the Quarries you had to walk down the “Stairs of death” these steep stairs had to be walked up by the prisoners with 100 pound rocks. The Nazi guards would often push people down the stairs or over the cliff. They would also play death games with the prisoners making them decided wether to kill the person in front of them or kill themselves.
Quarry
Stairs of death
This trip to Mauthausen was very draining and emotionally intense. There was so much pain and death stained into the walls of this facility. Though this is a modern day, tourist friendly, Mauthausen, I feel that it is important for people to see. Actually going to the place makes the Nazi horror come alive and take on new personal meaning.
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