The Mauthausen concentration campsite , situated virtually 20 kilometers E of the urban centre of Linz inwards Upper Republic of Austria , was the hub of 1 of the largest undertaking campsite complexes inwards the German-controlled part of Europe , amongst a primal campsite close the hamlet of Mauthausen , together with nearly 1 hundred other subcamps located throughout Republic of Austria together with southern Germany. Among these Mauthausen had the most roughshod detention conditions. It was classified “Grade III” , where the most “incorrigible political enemies of the Reich” were sent to live exterminated , oft through exhaustion past times grueling forced labor. The SS called Mauthausen Knochenmühle , or the os grinder.
The campsite was located on the border of a granite quarry where campsite inmates were sent to work. Indeed , the site for the campsite was chosen because of the quarry’s unopen proximity to Linz , a urban centre Hitler planned to rebuild amongst grandiose buildings equally envisioned past times Albert Speer.
The Stairs of Death at Mauthausen concentration campsite , together with so together with now.
Several times throughout the twenty-four lx minutes menstruum , prisoners were forced to send blocks of stone , oft weighing equally much equally fifty kilograms , upward the 186 stairs of the so called "Stairs of Death". Often , exhausted prisoners would collapse together with drib their charge on locomote past times of those next , creating a horrific domino trial amongst prisoners falling onto the adjacent , together with so on , all the agency downwardly the stairs. The heavy stones would shell their limbs together with bodies. People died on these stairs every day.
Sometimes , the SS guards would forcefulness the exhausted prisoners to race upward the stairs carrying blocks of stone. Those who survived the ordeal would together with so live placed inwards a line-up at the border of a cliff , the SS called "The Parachutists Wall". At gun-point each prisoner would accept the pick of existence shot or pushing the prisoner inwards front end of him off the cliff. Some prisoners , unable to acquit the tortures of the campsite , would willfully jump off the cliff. Such suicides were frequent.
Today , the "Stairs of Death" cast part of the guided tours at the Mauthausen Memorial. The stairs accept been redone together with straightened so that tourists tin easily climb upward together with downwardly them , but at that fourth dimension they were tilted together with slippery.
From the accounts of Christian Bernadac , a French resistance fighter who was imprisoned at Mauthausen , together with afterward wrote a mass titled The 186 Steps ,
Those who view the Mauthausen quarry today , don't meet the same matter , for since together with so , the steps accept been redone - a existent stairway , cemented , together with regular. At that fourth dimension , they were but cutting amongst a pick into the clay together with stone , held inwards house past times logs , unequal inwards tiptop together with tread , together with thus extremely hard , non entirely for climbing but also for the descent. Stones rolled nether our wooden-soled sandals , together with nosotros were forced to proceed moving at a really rapid pace.
The operate consisted of carrying upward a stone of considerable size together with weight , along the 186 steps , after which at that spot was nonetheless a considerable distance to cover. The human being who chose a stone constitute to live also pocket-sized was out of luck. And all of this went on at the charge per unit of measurement of 8 to 10 trips per day. The mensuration was infernal , without a second's rest.
The Mauthausen quarry is right away overgrown amongst trees together with bushes. Much of the campsite site is also covered past times residential areas built after the war. There is a museum right away together with a visitor center.
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Photo credit: Sonya Brunt/Panoramio
Photo credit: Martin/Flickr
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Photo credit: German Federal Archive/Wikimedia
SS officers climbing the "Stairs of Death" , Apr 1941. Photo credit: German Federal Archive/Wikimedia
View of the Wiener Graben quarry together with stone "stairs of death" (Todesstiege) at the Mauthausen concentration camp. Photo credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Prisoners at forced undertaking inwards the Wiener Graben quarry at the Mauthausen concentration camp. Photo credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Photo credit: German Federal Archive/Wikimedia
Photo credit: German Federal Archive/Wikimedia
Sources: Wikipedia / scrapbookpages.com / www.wien.gv.at