Mauthausen concentration camp became operational from the 8th of August 1938, several months after the German annexation of Austria, when the SS transferred the first prisoners from the Dachau concentration camp. The site was chosen because of the nearby granite quarry, and its proximity to Linz. During this phase, the prisoners, all of them German and Austrian men, had to build their own camp and work in the quarry.
In December 1939 the SS ordered the construction of a second concentration camp – Gusen - just a few kilometres from Mauthausen. The Gusen camp went into operation in May 1940.
The Second world war began on the 1st of September, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. Three months into World War II in December 1939, the number had increased to over 2,600 prisoners, primarily convicted criminals, "asocials," political opponents, and religious conscientious objectors, such as Jehovah's Witnesses.
After the Nazi regime initiated World War II, the number of prisoners arriving in Mauthausen increased dramatically and broadened in diversity. After the fall of France in June 1940, Vichy French authorities turned over to the German SS and police thousands of Spanish refugees, virtually all of whom had fought against General Francisco Franco's rebel troops during the Spanish Civil War, and who had fled to France after Franco overthrew the Spanish Republic in 1939. The SS and police incarcerated the overwhelming majority of the Spanish Republicans, more than 7,000, in Mauthausen in 1940 and 1941 and individual members of the anti-Franco forces continued to trickle in to the camp until the last weeks of the war. Also incarcerated at Mauthausen were members of the International Brigades, most of them Communists of various nationalities, who had fought the Franco forces in Spain.
Among the Spanish prisoners was Francesc Boix, a photographer and veteran of the Spanish Civil War, who was imprisoned at the camp for four years. During his time working in the photography lab of the camp, he was able to hide and preserve until liberation about 2,000 negatives taken by the SS head of the department, Paul Ricken, as well as by himself. Those photos depicted the conditions in which the prisoners lived and were murdered in that camp and they were also proof that the camp was known and visited by high leaders of the Third Reich, such as Ernst Kaltenbrunner or August Eigruber, who appeared visiting both the Mauthausen camp proper, and the quarry adjacent to the camp.
Mauthausen Massacre Brutal Slaughter of Nazi Guards during Mauthausen Liberation Reprisals. When after the outbreak of war, people from across Europe were deported to Mauthausen, it gradually developed into a system of several interconnected camps. In order to accommodate the prisoners where they worked, the SS established several subcamps.
Commandants of these camps reported directly to German Nazi commandant Franz Ziereis. Newly-arrived prisoners were transferred to these camps from the main camp. During this phase, Mauthausen and Gusen were the concentration camps with the harshest imprisonment conditions and the highest mortality. Those who were ill or deemed ‘useless’ by the SS lived in constant fear for their lives. In 1941 the SS started to construct a gas chamber and other installations at Mauthausen for the systematic murder of large groups of people.
Living and working conditions in Mauthausen, as in Gusen, led to the death by murder, mistreatment, starvation, exposure, and disease of more than half of the prisoners.
The work in the quarries – often in unbearable heat or in temperatures as low as −30 °C– led to exceptionally high mortality rates.
The rock quarry in Mauthausen was at the base of the so called "Stairs of Death". Prisoners were forced to carry roughly-hewn blocks of stone – often weighing as much as 50 kilograms or 110 pounds up the 186 stairs, one prisoner behind the other. As a result, many exhausted prisoners collapsed in front of the others in the line, and then fell on top of the other prisoners, creating a domino effect; the first prisoner falling onto the next, and so on, all the way down the stairs. In the quarry, prisoners were forced to carry the boulders from morning until night, while being whipped by the Nazi guards.
Join World History channel and get access to benefits:
[ Ссылка ]
Disclaimer: All opinions and comments below are from members of the public and do not reflect the views of World History channel.
We do not accept promoting violence or hatred against individuals or groups based on attributes such as: race, nationality, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation. World History has right to review the comments and delete them if they are deemed inappropriate.
► CLICK the SUBSCRIBE button for more interesting clips: [ Ссылка ]
#worldwar2videos
#ww2
#worldhistory
