Mauthausen Concentration Camp Today (2017)

Discussion in 'The Holocaust' started by Maksym Chornyi, Feb 15, 2018.

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  1. Maksym Chornyi

    Maksym Chornyi Active Member

    Mauthausen Concentration Camp Today (2017)


    In September 2017 I’ve visited the Mauthausen Memorial (Former Mauthausen Concentration Camp) and in this detailed material I want to share the history of the main sites with plenty of my photos, how Mauthausen looks today. A 5000-words personal account for those, who is fond of the topic.


    Mauthausen Concentration Camp Today: Mauthausen memorial

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  2. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    A good pen picture of Mauthausen.

    I visited the camp in July 2001 by car when we had a holiday in Germany and Austria.I took a number of photographs around the camp.If I remember correctly on the road leading to the camp was a MacDonalds, a modern development as a contrast to an area which had such a violent past.We had a good look at Linz on the way back and continued to follow the south bank of the Danube back to Passau,stopping for an excellent evening meal at a tavern on the edge of the river within Austria.

    When I visited the quarry to remember all those who had to slave there and then mount the steps with torturous loads on their backs,it started to rain heavily but having no shelter,I continued to walk up those 200 steps or so to the top.I remember at the time, the quarry could be accessed easily by going further down the road after the road turns up the hill to the camp proper.On the top,off the path to the camp was situated a memorial column dedicated to British inmates.virtually overlooking the quarry.

    On the access road to the camp,I noticed a number of houses built on the right hand side of the access road.At the time I thought if they had been built prewar. Then I saw a documentary a few years ago on Mauthausen which stated that they were the MQs of SS personnel who ran the camp.Furthermore, wives of former SS men were interviewed still living in these homes.One went further in her revelations in explaining the prevailing situation during the Nazi era....I drew the conclusion that she might have been subject to the start of a medical condition.

    Standing in the camp thoroughfare with huts either side it was easy to see the field to the right which apparently on liberation was packed with 20000 souls who were in very poor medical condition and accompanied by a high dead rate.These people had been transferred to Mauthausen in the closing days of the Third Reich and with the camp overflowing, were dumped in this new compound

    On the back wall behind the huts facing the entrance courtyard was an excellent memorial plaque listing SOE operatives who were executed here by the "hole in the wall" neck shot....operatives from the Prosper network and many from the Dutch Section,victims of the "North Pole" Abwehr deception.This mode of execution was also carried out to Russian Commissars,their NCO POWs and others who had been selected for the Kugel Erlass (Bullet Decree}

    It is recorded that Franz Ziereis, the Commandant for much of the time at Mauthausen,tried to buy the friendship of the Jewish inmates from April 1945 when the SS Concentration Camp structure was in chaos and the Third Reich was close to collapse.I think he may have presented himself to US forces when they overran the camp but was shown no mercy and died from his injuries.

    Previous discussion here on Mauthausen Paratroops in concentration camp
     

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