Hello, how are you, friends! Welcome to a new video. For those who don't know me, my name is Gabriel Herrera. In the summer of 1938, the Mauthausen concentration camp was a group of Nazi camps located around the company and quarry in the town of Mauthausen, here in Austria, about 20 kilometers from Linz. Initially, there was only one camp in Mauthausen, but over time it expanded to become one of the largest concentration camp complexes in the Nazi area in Europe. At this moment, we are on the outskirts of the main camp of Mauthausen, right here is the entrance to the Mauthausen memorial and this is the visitor center. As you can see, in this outer part there is a large wire fence with watchtowers in many areas. Besides the four sub-camps in Mauthausen and nearby Gusen, more than 50 sub-camps located throughout Austria and southern Germany used the occupants as slaves. Some camps subordinate to the Mauthausen complex included ammunition factories, mines, weapon factories, and assembly plants for the ME 262 aircraft. I am Cristina García, the president of the Blue Triangle Association, located in Córdoba. We are here in memory of all the Cordoban deportees who passed through Mauthausen. Three hundred twenty-six Cordobans were here and another three hundred forty-nine in total passed through various concentration camps. We are going to leave a plaque here and another in Gusen, with the two hundred eight Cordobans who were murdered and also tomorrow we will do this in Algiers, where nineteen Cordobans were gassed. We all represent the relatives, who are the important ones. They are the ones who have given us encouragement and the courage to be here and give their testimonies and for the deportees, all those who passed through Mauthausen, murdered or not freed, so that something like this never happens again. Never. In some parts of the compound around we have to use a bit of imagination and historical photos to realize what it was like at that time. This field you are seeing here, green, flowered, was actually the SS's sports and maneuvering area. In this field, friends, there were up to forty different nationalities gathered in this place. Many of the prisoners were from countries occupied by the Nazis and were sent here. In this green meadow, friends, at that time, around the year 1941, the health camp was set up. The "Sanitas League" was originally intended to be a camp for Soviet prisoners of war. It consists of several wooden barracks surrounded by an electrified high-voltage wire fence. When the construction of this camp was completed in the summer of 1943, most of the Soviet prisoners of war had already died. The camp was then used for the accommodation of sick prisoners who were not fit for work. Many of these sick came from other sub-camps who returned again to Mauthausen and remained here. I can't imagine the conditions of a malnourished, sick person, subjected to forced labor and with the cold, this breeze that is happening right now has my fingers frozen. The truth is that this, the climate, must have played a lot against the health of these sick. Now, let's continue with the tour, because this was just the outskirts of the main headquarters of the camp that we are going to enter. From what you can see today, there is absolutely nothing left. Really, for those who do not know the history and do not stop to think a little about what the place represents, they simply see a green field for fun, for recreation, but the truth is that it hides a very dark past. At that time, when this was still functioning to have the sick from these sub-camps there, soccer games were held here because there was the SS's sports field and really the population that was close to the concentration camp could attend these soccer games, even the Gestapo. They practiced and played with local teams. As part of all this, these people who attended these games, in some way were witnesses to all the suffering of these people. Well, friends, this view that we are going to have from here will help us understand why this place was specifically chosen for the Mauthausen concentration camps. What you are seeing there in the background, I don't know if you can see to your left that watchtower, and you can see that this is kind of a quarry. Precisely, friends, here were the granite quarries of Mauthausen and Gusen and this was the reason why in these places the concentration camps were established by the SS. I am going to be silent for a moment so that you can realize the current breeze that sweeps this place and that my hands that are exposed are suffering from this. Imagine what the prisoners must have gone through, who, in addition to being prisoners, were workers, because remember that the concentration camps also served for forced labor and companies took advantage of the slave labor, in this case of prisoners, because they simply had another ideology, they were against Nazi Germany, they were simply prisoners of war. In January of 1945, the camps directed from the central offices of Mauthausen contained a total of 85,000 prisoners. The total number of victims is unknown, but most sources cite that it was around 122,000 to 320,000 total victims. This, friends, is the Jewish monument where we can see the stones placed by the relatives of the victims. Each stone represents a person who came and placed it here in honor of that deceased person. Friends, these stairs that you are seeing here were the so-called stairs of death. Through there, prisoners had to carry granite blocks of up to 50 kilograms, up to the top of the camp via this staircase. For that reason, it was called the staircase of death. In addition, here prisoners were also deliberately murdered, they were shot or sent to their death by making them fall off the cliff. These latter, the SS cynically called parachutists. A Polish survivor named Stefan witnessed one of the crimes by the SS against a Dutch Jewish group, a group made up of 100 people in which they were made to line up one behind the other, and they had to push each other from the top down. Each of them fell a distance of more than 150 meters from where this person witnessed these crimes. These camps, friends, were one of the first concentration centers in Nazi Germany and were also one of the last camps liberated by the Western allies or the Soviet Union. Mauthausen-Gusen 1, were the only two in all of Europe labeled as Grade 3. Unlike many others, they were for all kinds of prisoners; Mauthausen was used for extermination tasks of the intelligentsia, enlightened people, and members of the social classes. This meant that they were the toughest for the incorrigible political enemies. The history of this camp dates back to August 7, 1939, when prisoners from the Dachau concentration camp were sent here, to the town of Mauthausen, near Linz, as I had already mentioned. It was at that time that they began the new construction of this camp. Besides being located at the quarry, this place was chosen for this purpose, as it was in a sparsely populated area and very close to the transport network of Linz. Although it was controlled by the German state from the beginning, it was founded by a private company for an economic enterprise. Here we can see the main gate. Notice that it has large electrified walls with barbed wire. We have watchtowers in that part over there we can observe all this watchtower on this side. Likewise, barbed wire over there. From here, we can already start to see the different barracks that still stand, since many were destroyed, many were looted or the material was sold to the state. And when the prisoners arrived, this was the view they had of the place, just as you are seeing it at this moment, this was the first thing they saw. Just after entering here, to the right, they passed to this area here and here was one of the walls that was later known as the wall of lamentations. The newly arrived prisoners had to remain in formation at the camp. If the journey to get here was torture, because sometimes they came in packed trains, filled to the brim and in conditions you can't even imagine. Upon arriving here, they were already subjected to mistreatment by the SS. It was like the first place where they went through their first and terrible experiences that they were going to live here from that moment on. Friends, during our tour, we will be seeing many plaques in commemoration of the Spaniards who were in this concentration camp. From August 1940, they arrived in packed cargo trains the more than 7300 Spaniards who until 1945 were registered here. These Spaniards came from occupied France. We are going to enter the first barracks, which in this case was the laundry barracks. Today there is a chapel set up in 1949, after its liberation, and a space for religious uses. In its basement are the showers, disinfection rooms, and boilers. Notice that, like other concentration camps we have already been to on this YouTube channel, these also, on the outside, were made of wood. They were not very good at protecting them from the outside temperatures, especially in winter. The truth is that they went through a lot of hardship inside these barracks. Let's see if the other barracks we will be able to enter give us a better idea of how life was inside these concentration camps. The Spaniards who arrived at the Mauthausen concentration camp had no support whatsoever from their government, since at that time in Spain there was the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, required by the German authorities to determine the fate of the prisoners. Francisco Franco's dictatorship replied that there were no Spaniards beyond the borders. Hence, the Republicans of Mauthausen wore the blue triangle of the stateless. This had an "S" for Spain in the center. I am walking through the formation plaza, and this was the central point of the camp for the prisoners to the left, looking from the gate, were the barracks where the prisoners were housed. To the right were the laundry, the kitchen, the prison, and the infirmary for those prisoners. Two or three times a day in the Formation Plaza the "Roll Call Formation" was held. This is how the SS controlled the presence of the prisoners. On each occasion, newly arrived prisoners were added and the deceased were removed from the list. With the formations, the SS staged the power it had over them. They had to stand in perfect formation and at attention. Regardless of rain, snow, or sunshine, adding mistreatment by the SS members. If the number of present did not match the list... The procedures could last hours or even an entire night. In a second phase, after 1943, the Spaniards who arrived at Mauthausen came from the French resistance. In total, about 35,000 Spaniards participated in World War II alongside the allies and 10,000 of them were in German concentration camps. This is the barracks designated to the prisoners who had power over other detainees... The prisoner officials or "Capos" were in charge of order in the yard through violence The SS offered them privileges such as better food, accommodation conditions, as well as other services This system allowed the reduction of forces needed for administration and surveillance At the same time, this unequal treatment made solidarity ties among prisoners more difficult To really know what this place looked like, we have to use a lot of imagination because nothing more than the structure itself of the barracks remains. Here we can clearly see what it was about. They were simple wooden planks; everything was wooden planks. Notice that in some parts they have been replaced in one way or another by new ones, but basically they were like this. The windows, very thin glass that didn't protect much from the outside climate. And notice that the roof, like the floor, was entirely made of wood. Imagine living here during the Austrian winter and the conditions in which they lived were not the best, because remember these barracks were overcrowded. In a bunk that was really for one person, there could be four prisoners. Here, in the middle of the barracks, was the canteen. Here we can see the space where food was served. Besides what I have already told you, what functioned in this barracks. Starting in 1942, a brothel began to operate. The women who worked there, or who in this case were sexually exploited here, came from the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp. They, with the illusion that by doing that job they would be released, that was the promise they were given, a promise that was never fulfilled. Only some privileged prisoners who performed certain types of jobs had access to these women. This was the bathroom area. Here we had, the drainage, here the latrines, but at this moment only the marks where they were located remain. Here we also have the marks on the floor where they were located, because there was one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and on this side a few more attached to the wall. Imagine this small bathroom being used by so many people. All this place here was also for barracks, only that at this moment nothing remains of them. But really here, the hub of life in the camp was the granite quarry where prisoners worked to death from exhaustion. A staircase of 186 steps separated the quarry from the barracks. Deportees had to climb it ten to twelve times a day, loaded with large stones on their back, while the "capos", prisoners who acted as foremen, and usually Polish, pushed and beat them with sticks. When the first Spaniard died On August 26, 1940 A situation that was repeated on numerous occasions. Over time, some Spaniards performed specialized work as... Masons, hairdressers, administrative staff, tailors, photographers... This way, they had more chances of survival than the quarry workers. Notice that here we have an aerial view of the concentration camp and we can see the barracks that currently exist, these are the ones that are more demarcated. These are the ones we will be visiting during our tour and then we have the barracks, which at this moment no longer exist. All these over here. The prisoners' barracks were intended for about 300, but in the second half of the war, some barracks housed up to 2000 people. They were divided into two rooms, A and B, and these in turn into a bedroom and a living room. The latter was reserved for the few prisoner officials. In most cases, two and even more prisoners had to share a sleeping space on the wooden bunks. Often, only sheets and straw mattresses were available for prisoner officials. Everyone else usually had nothing more than an old woolen blanket. The course of the day in the camp was marked both by agitation and monotony. Here we can see a representation of torture methods used by the commands, Standing on tiptoes on a bench, holding another with their hands stretched out. But this was just one of the many tortures employed in this camp that I will tell you about. In the central camp and in the outer camps, there was a daily routine to follow. Prisoners were woken up at 04:45 in the summer and at 05:45 in the winter, at the sound of a bell. They had to get up quickly and perform a routine that I will explain to you next. The first thing they had to do, in this area where the bunks were located, was to arrange the straw sacks with the help of boards, with the sides forming a right angle, and the blankets carefully folded. They had to stand in formation in front of the latrines, in this area where the bathrooms were located. Notice that here we also have the different positions where the latrines were and the urinals on the right side. After smoothing the straw blanket, with all this process, they then had to move to the bathrooms, pushing each other, because imagine that at some point there were 2000 people per barracks. It was a huge amount of people. Imagine that number of people at the same time doing everything in a hurry because they were always under pressure, trying to use this bathroom that had very few latrines. and now we are not thinking about it, but imagine that number of people all together in such a small space, trying to do their basic needs. The truth is that here privacy did not exist, there was no privacy at all. Imagine sitting here with another 200 or 300 people, whoever came in at that moment, coming and going, with more than 40 different nationalities that did not speak the same language, who perhaps insulted, pushed each other. The frenzy of the moment every morning was the same, and having to share these places that we usually expect to be private. Here were the urinals, they also had to use them quickly, one on top of another, with no privacy at all. Afterwards they moved to this area... which is still Something that also happened every day, during all this process, was that the prisoners hadn't even entered the bathrooms when they were already receiving blows from the capos, who were the security and were also prisoners. Testimonies from people who were in this situation said it was atrocious what happened here, because, as I tell you, there were too many people trying to do the same thing. Many times, a prisoner perhaps didn't even take the time to do anything, simply let it pass to avoid that situation. Moreover, there were always prisoners in this type of situation who had some authority, certain characteristics that perhaps allowed them to intimidate others, and these felt somehow intimidated and avoided using this type of space as much as possible. But it is true that there was some camaraderie, especially among nationalities. This camp was known as the camp of the Spaniards because of the large number they had. The Spaniards were veterans, the most ancient, when they started to receive prisoners in 1942 from the French resistance and the Russian front, because they already had the knowledge, the experience and controlled certain areas in some way. For example, the shower area, where more than once they saved the lives of fellow Spanish prisoners, besides some tortures by the Nazis in the shower area, that led to several people being killed with tortures in ice-cold water where prisoners were submerged up to the waist. with extremely cold water until it caused their death. At some point, the Spaniards managed to save the lives of these comrades who suffered from such tortures as well. The clandestine Spanish organization that was formed here helped distribute stolen medicines from the infirmary, redistribute the little food they had access to to other prisoners who needed it most and, somehow, make life here easier, if we can say so. The most vivid memory that remained with other prisoners from different nationalities about the Spaniards, is the faith they had in the end of Nazism, even in the worst moments of the war, because remember that the Spaniards had been suffering from Nazi Germany since the civil war that began in 1936. A phrase that the Spaniards often said each time they finished climbing the 186 steps that made up the death staircase was "another victory." It is thanks to this faith, friends, on the part of the Republicans, of the Spaniards here, they decided to preserve many of the photographs to serve as evidence against the atrocities that occurred here. And well, it is the case and example of Francisco Boix, a camp photographer who managed to preserve and copy all the photographs that passed through his hands and that served as evidence in the Nuremberg trials, they managed to prove the presence of important leaders who were being judged there. Albert Speer and Ernst Kaltenbrunner claimed to be unaware of the extermination camps of Mauthausen, but the photographs said otherwise. Francisco Boix Spanish Communist photographer of Catalan origin. Boix participated in the Spanish Civil War and was interned in Nazi concentration camps. Now we are going to enter what was once known as the bunker, which was nothing more than the camp's prison. because, besides the camp itself being a prison, there was a prison within the prison. This was completed in 1940 and housed a total of 33 cells. Obviously, there were not just 33 prisoners here, there were always many many more. There was no privacy either. Notice that here are still today the bars that allowed keeping the prisoners isolated, in addition to the cells themselves. Inside the cells, the only thing available to the prisoner in this case was a bucket to do their necessities. Now, if we think about the torture that also represented when they were in the normal barracks, I think having their own bucket in the cell might even have been much better, to show you how difficult it was when a bucket represents a comfort. A common practice of prisoners within their cells was to write confessions on the walls and this leads me to show you something that is very curious, because people who visit the concentration camp started doing the same on the walls and they put up these glass plates so that the things people have written remain intact and people continue to do it today, because notice that this part has not yet been covered with glass and they are all covered with messages from people who visit the place. So, look, we have many inscriptions here. As I have told you on previous occasions, the concentration camp had a granite mine, granite that was used to pave the streets of Vienna, but later Nazi Germany wanted to take advantage of this to rebuild many German cities. This was according to the plans of Albert Speer and other architects of Nazi architecture. If you are wondering where the money could come from for the construction of such places, in this case, to build the Mauthausen camp it was gathered from various sources, including commercial loans from Dresdner Bank, from Prague's Escompte Bank, from the Reinhard Fund, which was the money stolen from prisoners in other concentration camps and from the German Red Cross. Mauthausen initially served as a prison camp for common criminals, for prostitutes, for incorrigible criminals, but on May 8, 1939, it became a labor camp for political prisoners. Outside the prison where we were just a moment ago is this courtyard and this courtyard, friends, was used a lot at that time for executions. Here, many people lost their lives. Crematorium What you are seeing on your screens, friends, is the first crematorium of the Mauthausen concentration and extermination camp. It operated from May 5, 1940, until May 3, 1945. By the end of 1939, the Mauthausen camp, with its granite mine, was saturated with prisoners. Their number had grown from 1080 at the end of 1938 to 3000. Around that time, a new camp began to be built in Gusen, about 4.5 kilometers away. The new Gusen I and its Kastenhofen quarry were completed in May 1940. The first prisoners were transferred to the first two barracks, numbers seven and eight. On April 17, 1940, while the first transport of prisoners, mostly from the camps of Dachau and Sachsenhausen, arrived on May 25. Regarding the last concentration and extermination camp I mentioned, Sachsenhausen, it is located in Berlin and we visited it on our tour through Germany and it is already available on the YouTube channel in case you want to take a look and learn a bit more about how they lived in that concentration camp. Through this side, the bodies of the deceased prisoners in the concentration camp were introduced, either by tortures, and here we have a tribute to all those people who were incinerated here to erase any evidence. In this part, we can see where the SS performed autopsies on the bodies, which were also used for some practices. It was right next to the crematorium. In this place, the SS conducted autopsies and then the bodies were incinerated. But, if there were too many, here in this room, right here, all the bodies were stored. This was refrigerated and, afterward, they moved to this area here, the second cremation furnace, friends, which was located in this place. Only the floor where it was seated and the smoke exit that was right there remain. Often, friend, right next to the second cremation furnace, here on this wall, with half of it covered in wood, many of the prisoners were murdered and right here, on the right side, was the crematorium. Also here, everything functioned very close to the crematorium, the types of tortures that could have been for the prisoners. In this case, we can see this handle here, which is still there, with a metal cable attached to a metal beam. Here the prisoners who were sentenced to death were hanged, many of them lost their lives here. Once again, the crematorium right there in the back. We just came out of that second crematorium, through that door, down those stairs and here we can see the chimney through which the smoke of all those prisoners who were incinerated there came out. By the end of World War II, the capacity of the crematorium furnaces was so small for the number of corpses there were, that they used just this place here to bury the corpses in a mass grave. Even at the time the allies came to liberate the camp, there were still hundreds of bodies that had not even been thrown into the mass grave; they were simply there. Today, these crosses represent all those people who were buried here and who today serve as a cemetery. The Guards or "Capos" deliberately threw prisoners onto the 380-volt electrified barbed wire fence. In other cases, they forced them out of the camp limits and then murdered them under the pretext that they were trying to escape. Approximately 3000 inmates died of hypothermia They were forced to take a cold shower and then left outside in cold weather. Are you wondering what the life expectancy was then here in this concentration camp? I tell you that between 1940 and 1942, the average life expectancy was six months, but by the end of 1945, it was just three months. Remember that there was also starvation here; there was not enough food for everyone or the amounts needed. Remember that prisoners did not spend their days locked in the barracks, sleeping, they were forced to work in the quarry and then simply came here to sleep. Working for hours climbing those stairs exhausted, without food, without being able to sleep well at night because the place was overcrowded. That made life expectancy here very low and even after the camp was liberated it was not a guarantee that the people who were here would survive, because during the war the problem lasted afterward, for several years; the economy was not doing well and everyone was going through hardships. So, in addition to the fact that they spent a long time under these conditions, many of them continued to lose their lives because of everything they experienced during the months they were here. The increase in the number of their camps could not absorb the growing number of prisoners, which led to overcrowding in all the barracks of all the Mauthausen-Gusen camps from the end of 1940 to 1944. The number of prisoners per bunk rose from 2 to 4. Various sub-camps of Mauthausen included weapons and ammunition factories, quarries, mines, and factories. In addition, the inmates were used as slaves on nearby farms or employed in tunnel drilling, such as the Leipzig pass, where the tunnel connection between Austrian territory and Slovenia was carried out. Now we have entered the last standing barracks, which has been restructured and renovated. This formerly served as the infirmary barracks. Now it is a place for temporary exhibitions. Look, here we can see a photograph from 1948, just three years after the camp was liberated. And that grass was already growing, but notice the number of barracks that were here. And in this photograph taken in 2009, we can see what the camp, or the outskirts of it, looks like when there is snow. This bicycle you see here belonged to the Polish survivor Stanislaw, he received it from the nuns of Linz. He did not want to wait for his return to his native Poland to be organized and, along with two other survivors, he embarked on a long journey back to his country and kept the bicycle as a memento until the end of his life. What you are not seeing clearly because the image is a bit strong, is censored for that reason, is the former camp commander Francis Deutsch. He initially managed to escape, but a few days after the camp's liberation, American soldiers located and severely wounded him during his arrest before he died from his injuries a few hours later, they interrogated him about his activities as camp commander. The former prisoners hung his body on the camp's fence as a form of symbolic retribution. Original uniform Remember what I told you about the tortures and the beatings given by the commandos and the SS forces? This is one of the ones they used for that purpose. This handkerchief, friends, although it looks common, the embroidery on the cloth, was the last living trace of Lyda for George, on October 30, 1942. She threw it out of the prison window before being executed. The system was the same in all concentration camps and, if you have seen my previous videos on Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen, here in Mauthausen it was the same. What you are seeing right now on your screens was the most prized possession of the prisoners, and this was the bowl where the soup was served. The few food items that were given at mealtime and no one received the soup unless they had their bowl. That's why many prisoners carried these bowls day and night. They guarded them more than their own lives. This other item I'm showing you is the cap that prisoners wore during their stay in the concentration camps. Losing it meant death; that is, if you didn't have the cap, you died. This was a cap stolen by another prisoner who had to do it in order not to lose his own life. Unfortunately, for the person who lost that cap, they suffered the consequences. This was the hammer and chisel used in the Mauthausen quarry. These were the types of tools used by the prisoners on a daily basis and this is how the granite from that quarry looked. Here we can see the visit of Heinrich Himmler, who inspected on several occasions, accompanied by August Eigruber and high-ranking members of the SS and police. During these inspections, they saw how the work progressed and the technical improvements in the quarries. Notice that here we detail this photo... Here you see Himmler and here we can see a prisoner carrying a large granite rock on his shoulders, according to the testimony of the former Spanish prisoner Francisco Boix, This image was taken just after the photographs showing Henry Schindler during his visit to the quarry. The identity of the prisoner in this photograph is unknown. In this photograph, we can see what the entrance looked like through which we accessed, at the time of liberation in 1945 by the United States Army on May 5th. Nearly 9 million people were murdered during the war in concentration camps like Mauthausen-Gusen Only 80,000 survived. The SS, before retreating on May 4, 1945, tried to destroy evidence, including documentation about the prisoners. Therefore, only 40,000 victims have been identified. In the BOE, the Official State Gazette, which is the national official journal of Spain dedicated to the publication of laws, dispositions and acts of mandatory insertion there, on August 9, 2019, the list of Spaniards who died in the Mauthausen and Gusen concentration camps was published. Among the famous inmates who were here and survived is Joaquín Amat Pinel, a Spanish writer who published in 1946 "KL Reich", a novel-like account of his experience in the Nazi camps. Francisco Boix, photographer, author of some of the most important images on the captivity and liberation of this camp, was the only Spanish witness at the Nuremberg trials. His story is told in the film "The Photographer of Mauthausen". Antonin Novotný, president of Czechoslovakia; Peter Banville, in the book of Anne Frank, a young man who died on May 5, 1945, in Mauthausen and who lived with her in her hiding place in Amsterdam. These were bracelets worn by the bodies found in the mass graves. that were found Here we have a view from the ground level of the quarry and notice, the death stairs are right here. Through these stairs, the prisoners had to climb up to the top with rocks weighing up to 50 kilos and from the top, they were sometimes thrown down. We can see some photographs of the area where crematorium number two was located. This is the execution area I was talking about and here we can see a prisoner about to be hanged also in that area. And here we can see what the gas chamber of this concentration and extermination camp looked like. And in the hall also the crematorium and here is the tribute to all the people who lost their lives here. It is full of plaques, portraits, paying tribute to each one of those people by their relatives. Here the bodies of those who came to be incinerated were incinerated, because, as I mentioned, the number of deceased was such that they could not keep up with all these cremation rooms. They had to be placed in a mass grave and in the end, simply piled up. All these white lines that you see, each one represents the name of a person who died here. If we get closer, we can see each of them like in an endless infinity. And here we can also see a book with the names, dates of death, and birth. Friends, in this gas chamber, between 1942 and the end of 1945, approximately 3,455 people were murdered. Through this cruel method. The output of Mauthausen and its sub-camps exceeded each of the other major labor camps, such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Flossenbürg, Gross-Rosen, among others, both in terms of production quotas and profits. The list of companies that used prisoners from the Mauthausen concentration camps was long and included large, small, even local businesses. Even some parts of the quarry were used for the manufacturing of Mauser pistols. Well, those large doors that are closed at this moment represent the end of the torture of those who lived here or tried to survive here. They really were years of torture, dehumanization of the people who made a life here. It really is a rather dark episode that we should all remember, because the idea of making these kinds of videos is for that, friends, so that we never forget history, because otherwise, we are doomed to repeat it. Finally, this camp closed its doors on May 5, 1945 with the arrival of American troops. When the American army entered on May 5, 1945, Republican flags had replaced the Nazi flags and the gate of the camp was covered by a large banner that read: "The Spanish antifascists greet the liberating forces." It did not mean the end of the war that began in 1936 for the Republicans. Many could not return to Franco's Spain, the ideological ally of the Nazis they had fought in Mauthausen and would find asylum in other countries, mainly in France. On May 9, 2010, coinciding with Europe Day, the Vice President of the Spanish government, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, went to the Mauthausen camps to the commemoration of the 65th anniversary of their liberation. On that occasion, the Vice President stated that the victims of Nazism, of fascism, and of Francoism have not been nor will they be victims of oblivion and celebrated the memory of the Spanish Republicans who died in Mauthausen as the forerunners of the Europe of rights in which we live today. In 1943, an underground factory for the Steyr-Daimler-Puch company was built in Gusen. Approximately 45 large companies participated in making Mauthausen and its sub-camps one of the most... profitable concentration camps of Nazi Germany. In estimated earnings for the year 1944 alone, today it would total 87 million euros. Right above those doors, friends, was at the time the Nazi symbol, the eagle, but obviously that could not remain there and on May 5, 1945, the day of the liberation of the camp, a group of prisoners tore it down and demolished it. Thus, they made disappear a clearly visible symbol of the National Socialist reign of terror. In the last days before the liberation of the camp, there was chaotic disorder. The death figures were enormous. The SS tried to erase the traces of their crimes, ordered the destruction of evidence and the murder of witnesses. On the morning of May 3, 1945, it was the last time the prisoners had to line up for roll call. Before the gas chamber that we could see, an improvised gas chamber was used which simply consisted of a truck with the exhaust pipe connected to the rear into a sealed compartment to suffocate the prisoners with that gas. And what they did was that when they were transported from Mauthausen to Gusen, they were killed in that way during the journey. And that was the first gas chamber used in this camp. Well friends, we've come in the car to be able to access one of the sites though it is marked, many lost their lives in that place and it is the one we have been discussing—the death stairs. We are right at the bottom of the quarry, where they had to climb from. I had to put on a coat because even though we are in April, the cold is incredible in this area. Moreover, the breeze at the top is abyssal. Truly, the working conditions here had to be brutal. Notice that the prisoners only had that uniform we could see. I don't think that would have been enough to keep them from feeling cold. Just thinking about that fact and then working for ten to twelve hours, as I mentioned, without receiving sufficient food, nor having a quiet, warm place to rest, especially during the winter, must have been terrible. Look over here at part of what was the quarry. Look at all that there in the background... And from the high part, they threw several prisoners to end their lives in that way. Finally, these are the death stairs. Unfortunately, along this very path many people passed who at that moment lived their last moments. Perhaps many of those who reached the top and achieved that incredible feat, as a game, because simply an SS officer wanted it, would push them from the high part and, like dominoes, they would fall one over the other. Many of them lost their lives in the process. Everyone had stones on top, lack of food; anything could end the lives of those people. In a normal situation, climbing these stairs would require some effort, not a great effort, but indeed some effort, they are quite steep and high. Imagine carrying a rock like these, weighing 50 kilos, and having to go up and down all day, every day. In 1944 a Women's Camp was opened at Mauthausen Coinciding with the arrival of prisoners from Auschwitz The camp that we also toured in detail and all the tragedy that was lived can be seen here on my YouTube channel. These plaques honor the ironically named, so-called parachutists' wall, In a place where dehumanization is the goal and normality, any attempt to maintain human dignity must be seen as an act of resistance.
