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The SS incarcerated and killed approximately 5,000 recaptured prisoners of war in Mauthausen within the framework of “Operation K.” Approximately 85 percent of the recaptured prisoners were Soviet soldiers; the remainder included Polish, Yugoslav, Dutch, French, and Belgian soldiers.
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. Some 3,500 people were murdered with this abominable method by the war’s end. Ziereis had a crematorium installed to burn the bodies.
- Malloryk
By the time of its liberation, most of the guards in Mauthausen had fled; around 30 of those who remained were killed by the prisoners. A number of SS men had their heads impaled with stakes, while others were beheaded with their own knives.
Two hundred and fifty-three Czech nationals were brought to Mauthausen and killed. The women among them were taken in groups to the gas chamber. Most of the Czech prisoners were murdered in the three months, following Heydrich's assassination.
Overcrowding, lack of food and rampant disease led to mass death among the prisoners in the final months before liberation. On 5 May 1945 the US Army reached Gusen and Mauthausen. Some prisoners were in such a weakened state that many still died in the days and weeks after liberation.
About 200,000 prisoners passed through Mauthausen. Some 120,000 of them died, mainly from starvation, disease, and the hardships of labour. About 38,000 of the dead were Jews.
Nov 24, 2020 · Inmates at Mauthausen Concentration Camp were quite literally worked to death in the camp’s quarries and munitions factories, while the Nazis reaped the financial benefits of their work. Those who didn’t perish as a result of hard labour were liable to die of disease, malnourishment or to be killed in gas chambers.
