Mauthausen Concentration Camp Background History

Photos and text in quotes are from displays at Mauthausen.

 September, 1937:  National Socialist Party rally at Nuremberg.
"At the heart of National Socialist ideology is the idea of the 'Volksgemeinschaft' (People's Community).  Only those people who correspond to  its racial ideal and derive from this a shared destiny can belong to it.  Staged mass events are intended to make this 'people's community' visible."
 "In contrast, political opponents, Jews, Sinti and Roma, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and socially disadvantaged groups such as the unemployed and the homeless are discriminated against and persecuted."
"From the mid-1930's onwards ever more people became the victims of persecution.  The number of concentration camps such as Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald are established."

 March, 1939:  Entrance of the German Wehrmacht into Prague.
"Through occupation, resettlement and expulsion the National Socialists want to create a 'Great German Reich.'  In 1935 they reintroduce compulsory military service and shift the economy into war production.
"In 1935 the Saarland is reintegrated, followed by the 'Anschluss' (Annexation) of Austria into the German Reich in March 1938.  After the reincorporation of  the  Sudetenland in autumn 1938,the Wehrmacht (German Army) occupies the remaining Czechoslovakian territories in March 1939."
"Large numbers of people are deported from the occupied areas to concentration camps.  New camps such as Flossenburg, Mauthausen, and the Ravensbrueck women's concentration camp are established.  At the end of 1938 over 60,000 people  are imprisoned in the concentration camps."

  The poster below is publicity saying that the whole Austrian people should vote yes on April 10 (1938) to annex Austria to Germany.  Note that the vote took place a month after the German troops had already entered Austria.  There were reports of voter intimidation.

"Shortly after the 'Anschluss' (Annexation) of Austria to the German Reich, Mauthausen is chosen as the location of a concentration camp.  Political opponents and people categorized as 'criminal' or 'antisocial' are to be interned here and forced to carry out hard labour in the granite quarries."
"On August 8, 1938 the SS transfers the first prisoners from Dachau concentration camp.  The prisoners, who in this period are mostly German or Austrian, and all of whom are men, have to construct their own camp and set up quarry works.  Hunger, arbitrary treatment and violence characterize the prisoners' daily lives.  Some 500 prisoners die during the first eighteen months."



Below is a chart showing marks put on prisoners' uniforms.
Categories include:  Political Prisoners, Professional Criminal, Emigrant, Jehovah's Witness, Homosexual, Jews, Race Defiler, On Escape Watch, Pole, Czech, Member of the Wehrmacht.

"In the second half of the war the prisoners, including women for the first time, are increasingly deployed as workers in the arms industry and in the construction of underground factories."
"The SS sets up sub camps at various locations.  New arrivals are distributed to them from the main camp.  The total number of inmates rises to over 70,000 [at Mauthausen and related camps].  More and more, Mauthausen itself becomes a camp for the sick and weak to die in."
"Because the prisoners are now needed for their labour, living conditions improve temporarily.  However, the inhuman working conditions on the underground building projects soon push the death toll to new heights."

Below is a graphic showing the relative numbers of Mauthausen prisoners from different countries in white, and the number surviving in black.

The total number of prisoners in the Mauthausen complex from its establishment in August 1938 to the liberation in May 1945 was about 185,000.  Of these, about 93,000 survived. The largest number of those deported to Mauthausen came from Poland, followed by citizens of the Soviet Union and Hungary.  There were many Germans and lesser numbers from surrounding countries.