The Mauthausen concentration camp was the largest Nazi concentration camp in Austria.
It was located 20 kilometers east of Linz in Mauthausen and existed from August 8, 1938, until its dissolution after the liberation of its inmates by US troops on May 5, 1945.
The prisoners were forced to perform forced labor in a quarry. Many died of exhaustion, hunger, and disease, or were shot during escape attempts, which the Nazis deliberately allowed.
Mauthausen also had a brothel where imprisoned women were forced into prostitution. If they became ill or pregnant, they were used for medical experiments.
Around 200’000 people were imprisoned in the Mauthausen concentration camp and its subcamps, of whom more than 100’000 died.
I visited this memorial on July 1, 2015, on my way home from a tour of Bohemia in the Czech Republic.
