News

64th Anniversary of the Liberation of Mauthausen

Historians from the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum took part in ceremonies marking the 64th anniversary of the liberation of the Mauthausen-Gusen camp complex in Austria. In late April and early May 1945, American soldiers freed more than 60 thousand prisoners there.

Representatives of many states and organizations, including a Polish delegation of former prisoners (including some from Auschwitz) and Ambassador Jerzy Margański, joined the memorial march that was led by Austrian President Heinz Fischer.

Over 30 thousand prisoners were transferred from Auschwitz to the more than 50 camps and sub-camps in the Mauthausen complex.

In the final phase of its operations, the Konzentrationslager Mauthausen-Gusen was a network of more than 50 camps, sub-camps, and outside labor details. The two principal camps, Mauthausen and Gusen, were located in close proximity, with the other units spread over the entire territory of Austria.

Prisoners fell victim to hard labor, savage beatings, starvation, and inhumane treatment, as well as being killed with gas. Mauthausen and Gusen were Category III camps, the worst of all according to the hierarchy established by Heinrich Himmler in August 1940.

The more than 200 thousand people held there included Poles, Soviets, Jews, and people from 30 other ethnic groups. Almost half of them were killed. Many Mauthausen prisoners were taken to be killed at the euthanasia center at Hartheim castle, 30 km. away, where a total of approximately 30 thousand people died under the T-4 and 14f13 programs. The complex functioned from August 1938 to early May 1945.

This year's commemorations were disturbed in Eebensee by masked neo-Nazis, who attacked marchers from Italy and France. The events coincided with a public discussion in Austria about the country's responsibility for the crimes of the Nazi era. Question marks are surrently hanging over the future of the Austrian "national exhibition" on the grounds of the Auschwitz Museum. Doubts have been expressed about the exhibition's title, and its opening sentence: "March 11, 1938—Austria, the first victim of national socialism."