[Faline]

This is the Mauthausen Concentration Camp (known from the summer of 1940 as Mauthausen-Gusen Concentration Camp) grew to become a large group of Nazi concentration camps that was built around the villages of Mauthausen and Gusen in Upper Austria, roughly 20 kilometres (12 mi) east of the city of Linz.

Initially a single camp at Mauthausen, it expanded over time and by the summer of 1940, the Mauthausen-Gusen had become one of the largest labour camp complexes in German-controlled Europe.

Apart from the four main sub-camps at Mauthausen and nearby Gusen, more than 50 sub-camps, located throughout Austria and southern Germany, used the inmates as slave labour. Several subordinate camps of the KZ Mauthausen complex included quarries, munitions factories, mines, arms factories and Me 262 fighter-plane assembly plants.

In January 1945, the camps, directed from the central office in Mauthausen, contained roughly 85,000 inmates. The death toll remains unknown, although most sources place it between 122,766 and 320,000 for the entire complex. The camps formed one of the first massive concentration camp complexes in Nazi Germany, and were the last ones to be liberated by the Western Allies or the Soviet Union.

The two main camps, Mauthausen and Gusen I, were also the only two camps in the whole of Europe to be labelled as "Grade III" camps, which meant that they were intended to be the toughest camps for the "Incorrigible Political Enemies of the Reich".Unlike many other concentration camps, intended for all categories of prisoners, Mauthausen was mostly used for extermination through labour of the intelligentsia, who were educated people and members of the higher social classes in countries subjugated by the Nazi regime during World War II.

The camp





The Quarry




A Mauthausen block leader punishes an inmate.


Allied soldiers photographed behind a pit containing corpses.


An inmate at Mauthausen hangs himself in the latrine.


An inmate at Mauthausen hangs himself.


Corpses piled in the crematorium.


Dead prisoners strewn about at Mauthausen.





Prisoners lying dead in the showers.



Dead prisoners corpse clings to Barb wire/electric fence.



Prisoners lying dead along the barb wire.


Women at Mauthausen


Group photo of abused inmates taken by the SS at Mauthausen.


Guards after liberation.


Inmates found lying in filth after liberation.




Latrine overflowing with human waste.


Mauthausen - battered and barely alive, prisoners come down from their beds after liberation.


Post liberation photos of the Crematorium.



Tattooed and emaciated inmates of Mauthausen.

[dooshman]

My dad was among one of the U. S. army divisions to have gone into a Nazi concentration camp. I still remember the stories he told about the horrific smells that permeated even to the surrounding towns and communities.

If I had been in one of those allied armies liberating those camps, I don't know how I would acted toward the captured guards. I know I would've wanted to shoot every one of them.

Nice post, **Lady

[Viking64]

During the allied liberation, my father viewed a couple of concentration camps, but I don't think he ever went as far south as Austria. He was haunted by what he saw until the day he died.

Brilliant post, Kelly.

[wolfie]

My father was in the 101st that went into Austria. He liked the country and hated the people. Not much funny to say here. Sad.

[Agapeti]

Excellent post ^5

[alioni]

hahh nice

[XZER0]

heavy

[Lobsterbird]

Wow, excellent post Kelly. I've never seen these before.

[bellydancinb]

How very very sad.....

[Airbornemama]

I love learning about these type's of horror's, my family was Gypsy's that ran from Russia and i don't have any stories cause my grandparent's were too sad to talk about any of it! really nice find Kelly!!