Vienna Day Six: May the Living Learn from the Fate of the Dead

Today was cold and dreary, a fitting setting for the destination of Mauthausen, the largest concentration camp in Austria and one of the few grade three camps (meaning it was equivalent to the infamous Auschwitz in terms of harshness and it possessed the highest death rate of any concentration camp).

The initial train ride was filled with fun and laughter, as Hunter made a few new friends with Austrian school children. While they shared their gummy bears, they also took advantage of the language barrier to have some fun at his and our expense. 

The arrival to the camp was sobering. We disembarked at the train station and were taxi'd up the hill. The camp's position on the hill helped to isolate it, while demonstrating the power of the SS.

Entering the camp, where 195,000 prisoners were held during its existence, and some 90,000 died from a variety of causes including cold-blooded murder, there was a definite heaviness on everyone's mind. Students were able to explore the camp, including the crematoriums and barracks--some of which have been converted into displays to educate visitors on the history of Mauthausen and concentration camps. 

After the camp, the group made their way down to the quarry. Mauthausen constituted an extremely important component of the economic empire created by the SS as its prisoners were forced to work in the granite quarry adjacent to the camp.

We walked the steps where prisoners were forced to work carrying granite up the deadly stairs (prisoners were even forced to push other prisoners off the cliffs for the amusement of the SS officers).

Due to prisoners being shipped to Mauthausen from all over Europe, numerous national monuments and memorials are located outside of the camp's main gates. The largest, however, belongs to the Soviet Union. This is due both to the giganticism that characterized Soviet statuary and to the fact that more Soviet nationals died in Mauthausen than from any other country.

The ride back to Vienna was much quieter than our earlier trip as the magnitude of what we had just experienced stayed with us for the remainder of the day.