Mauthausen is a small market town in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. It is located at about 20 kilometres east of the city of Linz.
During World War II, it became the site of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp complex.
Contents
-
History 1
-
Population 2
-
References 3
History
The area of Mauthausen has been settled for many millennia, as shown by archaeological discoveries dating back to the Neolithic age. During the time of the Roman Empire, it was at the crossroads of two trade routes.
At the end of the 10th century it became a toll (Maut in German) station for ships, and the name "Muthusen" for the settlement is first mentioned in 1007
During World War I, a prisoner of war camp existed to the east of Mauthausen.[2] Italians, Serbs and Russians (at times 40,000 men) soldiers were imprisoned there, around 10,000 of whom died in the camp, mostly Italians, actually half. A war cemetery exists in their memory. The prison had especially guards from Hungary and Romania who were known for their barbar tortures of the soldiers.
During World War II, from 1938 to 1945, one of the first massive concentration camp complexes in Nazi Germany was set up to the west of the town. In early 1940, a large number of Poles were transferred to the Mauthausen-Gusen complex. An estimated 30,000 Poles died at Mauthausen-Gusen. Inmates were subjected to barbaric conditions, the most infamous of which was being forced to carry heavy stone blocks up 186 steps from the camp quarry. The steps became known as the "Stairway of Death."
Mauthausen experienced flooding from the Danube in 1954 and 2002.
Population
Tourism
Places of interest include:
References
-
^ Statistik Austria - Bevölkerung zu Jahres- und Quartalsanfang, 2014-01-01.
-
^ Mauthausen is listed among Austro-Hungarian POW camps in Beiblatt Nr.13 zum Verordnungsblatt für das k.u.k. Heer from Spring 1916, see English language translation.
Municipalities in the district of Perg
|
|
|
|
|
|
This article was sourced from Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. World Heritage Encyclopedia content is assembled from numerous content providers, Open Access Publishing, and in compliance with The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR), Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., Public Library of Science, The Encyclopedia of Life, Open Book Publishers (OBP), PubMed, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and USA.gov, which sources content from all federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government publication portals (.gov, .mil, .edu). Funding for USA.gov and content contributors is made possible from the U.S. Congress, E-Government Act of 2002.
Crowd sourced content that is contributed to World Heritage Encyclopedia is peer reviewed and edited by our editorial staff to ensure quality scholarly research articles.
By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. World Heritage Encyclopedia™ is a registered trademark of the World Public Library Association, a non-profit organization.