Term

Mauthausen

Prison camp in Austria near a stone quarry where prisoners performed heavy forced labour.

The camp commanders of Mauthausen were exceptionally cruel. The hardships claimed many victims within a few days.
The camp became known in the Netherlands in February 1941. On 22 and 23 February, following an incident that left a member of the NSB dead, a massive raid was conducted (the first in the Netherlands and the cause of the February strike), and 425 Jewish men were arrested and deported to Mauthausen. Soon afterwards death notices began to arrive. The men caught in the raids in the provinces of Gelderland and Overijssel in September and October 1941 were taken to Mauthausen and killed there as well.
Mauthausen was the only concentration camp for which the atrocities were common knowledge. SS Commander Rauter used the threat of deportation to Mauthausen to suppress resistance against the regime.

For additional see the websites: www.remember.org/camps/mauthausen
and Mauthausen memorial (in German, with some English pages).

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