Mauthausen’s rock quarry, c. 1940/41
Prior to the war, the stones from this quarry were used to pave the street of Vienna. In the years of the Third Reich however, the stone was used to create the camp of Mauthausen-Gusen. The main Austrian camp, Mauthausen and its quarry was one of the most horrific places to end up.
The theory of Primitivbauweise—the idea that prisoners were only premitted to use the most primitive of tools and when ever possible work with their bare hands—was introduced by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. Although gassing did take place as Mauthausen, the camp never approached the magnitude of those of Auschwitz. Instead, the guards killed their prisoners by working them to death in conditions that can only be described as hellish, and in the quarry the policy was fully enforced.
Transport to Mauthausen was feared even by Auschwitz prisoners.
August 26, 2012, 2:58pm / 17
