The Mauthausen concentration camp was founded in 1938. It was built by prisoners of another concentration camp - Dachau. Initially, it was supposed to keep criminals there, but since 1939 the camp was transformed into a "labor" camp for political prisoners. During the war, it was replenished with prisoners of war of different nationalities. It was believed that granite was harvested here for buildings in Germany and Austria. On the inside, on the wall near the gate, in the place where the new arrivals lined up, there are memorial plaques in memory of groups and individual prisoners.
The prisoners of the camp were 335 thousand people, of which more than 122 thousand were executed. In 1944, the "Block of Death" was created, where elite SS detachments "trained" on prisoners. This block housed the escaped but captured prisoners, most of whom were Soviet officers.
A group of prisoners in February 1945 escaped from the "Block of Death", followed by an operation called "hunting for hares", but this topic requires a separate story.
At the end of the war, "training" was extended to the entire camp, and the destruction of people was put on stream. Prisoners were brought to a special building for "medical examination", in the wall behind the bar for "height measurement" there was a hole through which the victim received a shot in the back of the head.
Someone left a bouquet of flowers near the incinerators.
There are more than 20 monuments in the camp, including a monument to 32 thousand Soviet prisoners of war who remained here forever. Not far from the entrance is a monument to General Karbyshev, who, with a group of other prisoners, was poured with water from hoses in winter until they turned alive into pieces of ice.
On May 6.1945, American troops approached the camp, however, the liberation was fraught with danger - compassionate liberators, out of compassion, fed the emaciated prisoners, which was absolutely not to be done. There were cases when emaciated prisoners who suddenly received abundant food died from volvulus of the intestines on the day of their release.
The prisoners of the camp were 335 thousand people, of which more than 122 thousand were executed. In 1944, the "Block of Death" was created, where elite SS detachments "trained" on prisoners. This block housed the escaped but captured prisoners, most of whom were Soviet officers.
A group of prisoners in February 1945 escaped from the "Block of Death", followed by an operation called "hunting for hares", but this topic requires a separate story.
At the end of the war, "training" was extended to the entire camp, and the destruction of people was put on stream. Prisoners were brought to a special building for "medical examination", in the wall behind the bar for "height measurement" there was a hole through which the victim received a shot in the back of the head.
Someone left a bouquet of flowers near the incinerators.
There are more than 20 monuments in the camp, including a monument to 32 thousand Soviet prisoners of war who remained here forever. Not far from the entrance is a monument to General Karbyshev, who, with a group of other prisoners, was poured with water from hoses in winter until they turned alive into pieces of ice.
On May 6.1945, American troops approached the camp, however, the liberation was fraught with danger - compassionate liberators, out of compassion, fed the emaciated prisoners, which was absolutely not to be done. There were cases when emaciated prisoners who suddenly received abundant food died from volvulus of the intestines on the day of their release.
Translated automatically from Russian. View original
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