The field of death: Mauthausen
On August 8th, 1938, just a few weeks after the Nazi occupation of Austria, prisoners from the Dachau, a concentration camp near Munich, were transferred to the Austrian town of Mauthausen.
They were brought to the rock quarry there, known as the "Wiener Graben", where they began to build the granite fortress-prison of the main camp, mostly with their blood, bodies, bare hands and backs, comprising some 49 sub-camps. Between Aug. 8, 1938 and May 5, 1945, about 195, 000 persons, men, women and children, were forced into these camps. It should be noted that Austria contributed more volunteers for the SS, than did Germany.
The Mauthausen camp was one of the most infamous in the entire Nazi alternate universe of human destruction. Many people, most of whom were innocent of any crimes, were tortured to death in its rock quarry, and in the tunnels of Mauthausen-Gusen, the most infamous of the sub-camps. Prisoners were to be given only the most primitive tools, and also, whenever possible, they were to work with their bare hands. In Mauthausen it resulted in a harsh, stone world, deprived of any human kindness and compassion. It is there today still... sitting on a small mountain-top in the astonishingly beautiful and bucolic Austrian countryside.
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The number of deads are 120.000-150.000