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During the war, the SS incarcerated more than 10,000 Soviet prisoners of war at Mauthausen, including 3,000 held at the Mauthausen subcamp Gusen. Nationals of virtually every German-occupied country in World War II came through Mauthausen.
On May 12, 1940, the first transport of Jews from the Netherlands arrived and on October 20, 1941, an initial transport of 4,205 Soviet Prisoners -of-War arrived in Mauthausen, though approximately 2,000 of these were transferred to the Gusen sub-camp.
Apr 8, 2024 · On May 3, 1945, the SS abandoned the camp, aware of the impending arrival of the Allies. Mauthausen’s liberation by the US Army came two days later, and it was a key moment in the history of the camp and the wider story of World War II.
After several months of work, the SS began to kill prisoners, condemned for political offenses, there with poison gas in March 1942. The first victims were Soviet prisoners of war transferred to Mauthausen from POW camps run by the German army. Later the SS gassed inmates who were extremely ill.
- Malloryk
In February 1945, the camp was the site of the Nazi war crime Mühlviertler Hasenjagd ("hare hunt") where around 500 escaped prisoners (mostly Soviet officers) were mercilessly hunted down and murdered by SS, local law enforcement and civilians.
It was liberated in the summer of 1944 as Soviet forces advanced westward. The previous spring, the SS had evacuated most of the Majdanek prisoners and camp personnel. The evacuated prisoners were sent to concentration camps further west, such as Gross-Rosen, Auschwitz, and Mauthausen.
On May 3, 1945, the SS abandoned the camp to the custody of a guard unit of 50 Viennese firefighters, who remained on the perimeter of the camp. Members of an “International Committee” formed by the prisoners in the last days of April administered the camp as units of the US Army arrived at the camp and secured the surrounding area on May 5.
