Experience: Gusen
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
“Satellite camp of the Mauthausen concentration camp in Germany. Gusen was established in March 1940 to compensate for the phenomenal growth of Mauthausen. It was liberated on May 5, 1945. During 1940, some 5,000 prisoners arrived at Gusen, where they worked in brickyards and quarries. During that time, more than 1,500 prisoners died or were killed there. During the first half of 1942, over 2,000 Soviet prisoners were brought to Gusen.
“The living conditions at Gusen were quite brutal. Prisoners were made to work at a backbreaking pace, and those who could not keep up were killed. One of the camp's barracks was designated for prisoners who were to be executed by poisonous injection and was also used for the fatal beatings of those prisoners too weak to work. In addition, groups of prisoners from Gusen were taken to be killed in the gas chambers of the nearby Hartheim castle. Two more satellite camps, Gusen II and III, were instituted in 1944. The prisoners at Gusen II worked on constructing tunnels to underground armaments factories.
“Altogether, 67,677 people were interned at the Gusen camps, of whom 31,535 were recorded as having died, not including the 2,500 Jews whose deaths were not recorded, and the 2,630 prisoners gassed at Hartheim — a former Euthanasia Program installation.”
Yad Vashem
Shoah Resource Center, The International School for Holocaust Studies
The 26th Infantry Division
“On May 5, 1945, the "Yankee" division overran Gusen concentration camp. SS authorities had established Gusen as a separate concentration camp in May 1940 to better exploit the nearby stone quarries with forced laborers. As Allied bombing raids on Germany increased in intensity, the Nazi leadership decided to move industrial war production underground, using concentration camp prisoners for labor. At Gusen, the SS deployed inmates to excavate out of nearby mountains an elaborate system of tunnels that connected to mammoth subterranean installations for aircraft production. In 1944, Gusen had become a subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp. In May 1945, as U.S. troops neared the camp complex, some SS and Nazi Party planned to demolish the tunnels with the prisoners inside. The advance of the 26th Infantry and 11th Armored Divisions ensured that such plans would not be carried out.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Accessed on July 21, 2011
— National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Md.
Accessed on July 21, 2011
— United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
— National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Md.
Accessed on July 21, 2011
— USHMM, courtesy of Marvin Springer
Accessed on July 21, 2011
“Satellite camp of the Mauthausen concentration camp in Germany. Gusen was established in March 1940 to compensate for the phenomenal growth of Mauthausen. It was liberated on May 5, 1945. During 1940, some 5,000 prisoners arrived at Gusen, where they worked in brickyards and quarries. During that time, more than 1,500 prisoners died or were killed there. During the first half of 1942, over 2,000 Soviet prisoners were brought to Gusen.
“The living conditions at Gusen were quite brutal. Prisoners were made to work at a backbreaking pace, and those who could not keep up were killed. One of the camp's barracks was designated for prisoners who were to be executed by poisonous injection and was also used for the fatal beatings of those prisoners too weak to work. In addition, groups of prisoners from Gusen were taken to be killed in the gas chambers of the nearby Hartheim castle. Two more satellite camps, Gusen II and III, were instituted in 1944. The prisoners at Gusen II worked on constructing tunnels to underground armaments factories.
“Altogether, 67,677 people were interned at the Gusen camps, of whom 31,535 were recorded as having died, not including the 2,500 Jews whose deaths were not recorded, and the 2,630 prisoners gassed at Hartheim — a former Euthanasia Program installation.”
Yad Vashem
Shoah Resource Center, The International School for Holocaust Studies
The 26th Infantry Division
“On May 5, 1945, the "Yankee" division overran Gusen concentration camp. SS authorities had established Gusen as a separate concentration camp in May 1940 to better exploit the nearby stone quarries with forced laborers. As Allied bombing raids on Germany increased in intensity, the Nazi leadership decided to move industrial war production underground, using concentration camp prisoners for labor. At Gusen, the SS deployed inmates to excavate out of nearby mountains an elaborate system of tunnels that connected to mammoth subterranean installations for aircraft production. In 1944, Gusen had become a subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp. In May 1945, as U.S. troops neared the camp complex, some SS and Nazi Party planned to demolish the tunnels with the prisoners inside. The advance of the 26th Infantry and 11th Armored Divisions ensured that such plans would not be carried out.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Accessed on July 21, 2011
— National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Md.
Accessed on July 21, 2011
— United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
— National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Md.
Accessed on July 21, 2011
— USHMM, courtesy of Marvin Springer
Accessed on July 21, 2011
Contact us
thank you!
Your application is successfuly submited. We will contact you as soon as possible
thank you!
Your application is successfuly submited. Check your inbox for future updates.