Jen's Adventure Abroad: In Honor and Memory of those who suffered...Mauthausen

Hi! I'm going to start this post with a warning. Yesterday we visited KZ Mauthausen, a concentration camp located only about 20 Km from Linz. It was amazing and very intense. I am going to post some pictures on here, so fair warning. If you want to see some of the more intense pictures (the crematorium, gas chambers, etc) just ask me.

Mauthausen was chiefly a work camp during WWII, but that didn't serve to stop the absolute horrors that took place there. The camp imprisoned people from all over Europe, with the Polish making up the majority, followed by Soviet and Hungarian citizens. There were also large groups of Germans, Austrians, French, Italians, Yugoslav, and Spanish inmates.

Outside the camp, the stone work is beautiful

Approximately 100,000 people died at Mauthausen and its satellite camps before the camp was liberated by the US Army in May 1945. I won't go into the details of the brutality at the camp, but I have the brochure and can tell you about it if you want to know.

A model of the camp grounds, you can see the quarry in the front

The Barracks, I think this was actually one of the Youth Dorms

The Church on the camp grounds

Inside the Camp

The most intense part of the camp was the quarry. It was very deep and you could walk down the path inmates used to carry huge stones out of the quarry and up to the main part of the camp.

View down to the bottom of the quarry

Part way down the hill to the bottom of the quarry

cool shot through the barbed wire (made of concrete) memorial at the top

The thing that was strangest to me about the camp is the sheer beauty of the area. The camp is on top of a hill/mountain in the Austrian countryside with sweeping views of the surrounding area. Even the stone outer-buildings and main wall of the camp are pretty. The camp was a truly moving experience, definitely intense. If you ever have the chance to visit a concentration camp, I would recommend it. The camps represent a hugely important (and horrific) time in our history, which should be remembered. I have Polish and Ukranian in my background so I focused on those memorials more than others.