LAGARUL DE LA

MAUTHAUSEN
On August 8, 1938, just a few weeks after the Nazi occupation of Austria,
prisoners from the Dachau, concentration camp near Munich, were transferred
to the Austrian town of Mauthausen, near Linz.

They were brought to the rock quarry there, known as the "Wiener Graben",
where they began to build the granite fortress-prison of the main camp, mostly
with their blood, bodies, bare hands and backs. It was known as the “mother
camp” for all of Austria, comprising some 49 sub-camps. Between Aug. 8,
1938 and May 5, 1945, about 195, 000 persons, men and women, were forced
into these camps. Most of the people were imprisoned under the Nazi
“protective custody” laws, that is, they were consider dangerous to the Third
Reich of Germany and Austria, and therefore, these two nations, now joined,
had to be “protected” from these people because of their racial origin,
nationality, political affiliation or religious belief. It should be noted that
Austria contributed more volunteers for the SS, per capita , than did Germany.

The Mauthausen camp was one of the most infamous in the entire Nazi
alternate universe of human destruction. Many people, most of whom were
innocent of any crimes, were tortured to death in its rock quarry, and in the
tunnels of Mauthausen-Gusen, the most infamous of the sub-camps. The policy
of death through work was instituted by Chief of SS, Reichsfuhrer Heinrich
Himmler. Prisoners were to be given only the most primitive tools, and also,
whenever possible, they were to work with their bare hands. This policy was
known as “Primitivbauweise”. In Mauthausen it resulted in a harsh, stone
world, deprived of any human kindness and compassion. It is there today still...
sitting on a small mountain-top in the astonishingly beautiful and bucolic
Austrian countryside, maintained by the Austrian government.
MAUTHAUSEN VEDERE DE ANSAMBLU

The Rock Quarry

(Wiener Graben)
 Photo: copyright © Scott Sakansky
Human beings labor in order to improve their lot, to enhance the
quality of existence. The products of this labor usually help make
things easier by creating a safer and more comfortable way of life,
one that protects one's family from the elements, keeping it warm and
safe. But here in the Wiener Graben in the main Austrian
concentration camp Mauthausen, the only product was human
suffering... and death. Before the war, stone from here was used to
pave the streets of Vienna. Later, in the time of the Nazis, the stone
was used to create the main camp above, with its meticulously
designed, fitted, squat and lonely gray walls and towers.

SS Chief Heinrich Himmler introduced the idea of Primitivbauweise ,

that is, prisoners were to use only the most primitive tools, and also,
whenever possible, they should work with their bare hands. Although
there were gassings at Mauthausen, they never approached the
magnitude of the gassings at Auschwitz. However working conditions
here were more harsh. Mauthausen officials were charged with
literally working prisoners to death. At no place in the camp was this
more evident than in the quarry. Even Auschwitz prisoners feared
transport to Mauthausen.
 Spanish Republicans at forced labor in the quarry at Mauthausen.
Date: 1942

On receiving a large block of marble from the quarry at Cararra,

Michelangelo remarked that the sculpture he planned already existed
within. All he had to do was take away what wasn't necessary. Here, near
the stairs in the rock quarry known as the Wiener Graben in the
punishment and death by labor camp, Mauthausen, near Linz, Austria, one
finds the ghosts of the time of the Nazis willing to be liberated from the
stones their living counterparts labored so tragically to hew.

Ghosts
On receiving a large block of marble from the quarry at Cararra,
Michelangelo remarked that the sculpture he planned already existed
within. All he had to do was take away what wasn't necessary. Here,
near the stairs in the rock quarry known as the Wiener Graben in the
punishment and death by labor camp, Mauthausen, near Linz,
Austria, one finds the ghosts of the time of the Nazis willing to be
liberated from the stones their living counterparts labored so
tragically to hew.

Then and Now: Wiener Graben

(Rock Quarry)
 Photo credit: Mauthausen Museum Archives, USHMM Photo Archives
Black and white photo taken just after liberation of the camp on May 8, 1945
by American Gen. George Patton's troops.

Color photo taken June 1996.

Today the quarry where so many died terrible deaths is quiet and still
but for the occasional gentle breeze off the granite walls, or the
hushed voices of tourists, or a parent summoning a child, or even a
survivor describing what it was like here... then.
 The Gas Chamber

Take pause from your busy life for just a few moments and
try to imagine what it must have been like to know this was
the last room you would ever be in or that its stark light would
be the last you would ever see. Do you ever wonder what it
was like, what it felt like to be gassed?
This chamber in Mauthausen was built in the basement,
below the sick quarters. It was completed and used by the
spring of 1942. On the other hand, the sick quarters were
only half completed at war's end. The SS would cram 120
persons into this chamber, seal the doors and pump in
carbon monoxide. Inefficient as it was, the prisoners often
died of suffocation rather than the gas. “Consequently, when
the doors were opened to remove the bodies, it was found
that the dead were covered not only with excrement and
blood, but their eyes protruded from their heads and their
bodies stiffened into grotesque positions.” [1]
[1] Evelyn Le ChÈne, Mauthausen, The History of a Death
Camp, London: Methuen, 1971 (in Konnilyn G. Feig, Hitler's
Death Camps, London: Holmes & Meyers, 1979).
 To the Gas

There were many different ways to kill prisoners at Mauthausen and

at first gassing was not needed. But as more and more prisoners were
transported to the camp, it became necessary. The SS even converted
a railroad car into a gas chamber that ran between Mauthausen and
Gusen, its infamous sub-camp. In the Mauthausen chamber, they
could murder 120 people at one time. Witnesses estimate that as many
as 10,000 prisoners were gassed in this room between 1942 and 1945.
 The "Judas Opening"

A peep hole for the curious, the professional killers, the sadists and
the perverse. A place to gloat over the deaths of others; to wield such
power, indeed to have such power. Why? To feel above it all, like a
brooding Greek god on Mt. Olympus: superior, alive, invulnerable,
perhaps even for a few moments, immortal?
 The Dissecting Table

Among many other speudo-scientific "experiments", SS doctors

removed organs from living people, bottled and stored them on
shelves in the dissecting room. They skinned prisoners with
interesting tattoos and sold them as book covers, gloves, luggage and
lamp shades. One physician selected two prisoners with near perfect
teeth and used their heads as paperweights on his desk. One questions
the motivation of such acts. Those interested might go to
http://www.bravenewweb.com/idea/ and read: Aspects of Survival:
Triumph Over Death and Onliness by Alan Jacobs.

The
Disposing
of the
Murdere
d (1)
 The smaller of the two Mauthausen ovens and its
accompanying smoke stack.

The Disposing of the Murdered (2)

 Now & Then...

Krematorium stacks beside the roll call square.

Double furnace in the basement.

This photo, taken just after liberation, is of prisoners showing the
same furnace to liberators.

A Grate into Hell

Grate over the Krematorium in the roll call square.

The
Bunker

It is hard to imagine anything worse than being thrown into

a concentration camp. But even in Mauthausen there was a
deeper hell, an isolation unit. Here, in what was already the
end of the line, there was another, deeper hell; the end of the
line at the end of the line. If one broke the camp's often
absurd rules, he could very well have been be thrown into
the bunker. Several prominent European political leaders
were kept in permanent incommunicado in this place. The
Nazi government revealed itself a criminal regime, lead and
followed by criminals, by designating these innocent people
criminals, and subjecting them to barbarously inhuman
treatment..
 Window into Oblivion

This window looks into the the hall at one end of the bunker, the
isolation unit. If the Mautahusen camp was the end of the line, this
cell block was the end of the line at the end of the line.

It's So
Quiet
Now

Photo credit: Franz Amicale Collection, USHMM Photo Archives

Date: Jul 1941
Six thousand souls waited in this courtyard for 24 hours. In
the end, about 140 of them were dead.
 Franz
Ziereis
The
Commandan
t of
Mauthausen
August 1939
to May 1945
 Photo credit: Andras Tsagatakis Collection, USHMM.
He allowed his eleven year old son to shoot prisoners with
a rifle from their front porch. Ziereis was wounded by
Allied soldiers and subsequently died some time later from
his wounds. He never really admitted his crimes. 40,000
prisoners had perished in the first four months of 1945.

The
Wailing
Wall

Newly arrived prisoners were subjected to an initiation

ritual: standing at attention facing this wall while chained to
iron rings; this for at least hours, and sometimes days. They
were interrogated and brutally beaten. Today the wall is
covered with numerous memorial tablets.
New arrivals at the "Klagemauer" (wailing wall) after a week long
trip in open railway cars.
Date: 1943-1944
Photo credit: National Archives, USHMM Photo Archives

The Latch
 It is always surprising to see the degree of care and meticulous
attention to detail, even elegance, the SS exacted in their goal of
surrounding, punishing and killing innocent people.This latch is on
the entrance gate to the main camp at Mauthausen.

The Parachute Jump

Often Prisoners were made to run up and down the stairs till most
were dead. Sometimes the remaining ones would be made to jump off
the top of the quarry. SS humor coined it “ the parachute jump”. In
1941 a large group of Jews from the Netherlands were given “special
treatment”. They were made to slide down the loose stones on the
side of the staircase. Many of them died in the effort. The survivors
were made to run up and down the steps with 25 kilo stones on their
backs. Often the stones fell on feet and legs of those behind. Those
who lost the rock were brutally beaten. For two days the SS drove the
Jews up and down the steps. On the third day, driven by despair, the
remaining Jews joined hands and leaped over the precipice tp their
death in the quarry below. [1]

[1]
Konnilyn Feig, 1979, Hitler's Death Camps: The Sanity of Madness, New
York: Holmes and Meier. p. 121.

The Stairs of Death

(Photo credit: National Archives, USHMM Photo Archives)
Prisoners were forced to climb the 186 steps of the Wiener Graben
with large blocks of granite on their backs. Often the blocks would
fall, crushing limbs and bodies of those following, sometimes killing.
The SS guards invented competitions betting on which prisoner
would make it to the top first. Those surviving the ordeal would then
be forced to jump from the edge of the quarry to their death below.
This particular spot at the edge of the quarry was known “The
Parachute Jump”.

“...in 1944 ....The SS led fourty-seven Dutch, American, and English

officers and flyers, barefooted, to the bottom. On their first journey
up the 186 steps they forced the men to carry twenty-five kilogram
stones on their backs. On each successive journey they increased the
weight of the load. If a prisoner fell, he was beaten. All fourty-seven
died of the treatment”. [1]

[1]
Konnilyn Feig, 1979, Hitler's Death Camps: The Sanity of Madness, New
York: Holmes and Meier. p. 121.
# Title Description
1 The Stairs of Death Rock staircase at the quarry.
2 The Rock Quarry The rock quarry.
3 The Parachute Jump Top of the rock quarry.
Then and Now: Wiener
4 The rock quarry.
Graben
5 Ghosts Rocks at the quarry.
6 The Latch Camp entrance
7 The Wailing Wall Stone wall at the entrance.
8 Window into Oblivion The camp prison.
9 The Bunker The camp prison (Bunker).
10 The Gas Chamber Gas chamber.
11 To the Gas Gas chamber.
12 A Grate into Hell. Roll Call square.
The Disposing of the
13 Crematorium.
Murdered-1
The Disposing of the
14 Crematorium.
Murdered-2
15 The Dissecting Table
16 It's So Quiet Now Prisoners waiting for disinfection.
Franz Ziereis - the Camp Commandant from August 1939 to May
17
Commandant 1945.
18 The Iron Spider
19 Little Ironies Life goes on.