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SUSAN LADIKAIn the picturesque Austrian countryside near the town of Mauthausen is Austria's main World War II concentration camp.
MAUTHAUSEN, Austria - The fields are a checkerboard of greens and golds, and red-roofed farmhouses dot the land. It is almost inconceivable that in the midst of this bucolic scene, horrors happened.
Instead of being perched on a rise overlooking the rolling Austrian countryside, you might expect Austria's main World War II concentration camp to be tucked away in dark woods or in a deep valley. Yet this is where more than 120,000 died from murder, disease and exhaustion, and it now serves as a memorial to the suffering.
Opened in the summer of 1938, shortly after the German army rolled into Austria - often greeted by cheering crowds - Mauthausen initially held political prisoners seen as opponents to the Nazi regime. Eventually the camp was expanded to house prisoners of war and so-called "undesirables" of various ethnic and religious groups.
Nearly 200,000 were imprisoned before Mauthausen was liberated by U.S. troops in May 1945. The camp housed primarily men, though several thousand women, along with children, were taken there toward the war's end.
The prisoners' main task was mining granite from the quarry nearby, then lugging the heavy slabs up the "stairway of death," 186 rough-hewn steps.
The camp looks like a stone fortress, punctuated by guard towers. Near the main entrance, a tablet details the nationalities of 122,766 who perished there: Russians and Poles, Hungarians and French, even 34 Americans. And the list doesn't include the tens of thousands who were killed but whose deaths went unrecorded.
One who isn't forgotten is Gen. Dmitry Karbyshev, whose tale is recounted on an audiocassette that directs visitors around the camp. A memorial to the Russian military hero stands near the main gate, a figure half-emerged from a block of stone. Accounts say that Karbyshev was forced to stand outside, naked, in subzero temperatures in February 1945; he was doused with cold water until he froze.
Soviets were among the worst-treated at Mauthausen, and more than 30,000 perished there. One of the most horrific incidents also took place in February 1945, when about 500 Soviet officers made a desperate bid to escape. The SS, Wehrmacht and even local civilians teamed to hunt the prisoners. Even some Soviets who stayed in the camp were killed. Reports say that of the 570 Soviets who had been imprisoned at the time of the escape attempt, nine survived the Germans' retribution.
Visitors can walk past the crematorium or stand in the shower room were several thousand prisoners were gassed. The building today also houses a museum with artifacts and photographs of Mauthausen during the Nazi era, as well as of the dozens of Austrian subcamps that were established to provide labor for the armament industry.
Across the main street of the camp, three of the 20 wooden barracks remain. Intended to hold 200 prisoners each, they were often crammed with up to 800 people, who slept three to a bunk.
Outside the camp's walls, memorials pay tribute to Jews, Gypsies, Spanish, Dutch, Albanian and numerous other prisoners. Despite the pain and sorrow Mauthausen imparts, the message reiterated again and again is clear: Only by confronting such horrors can we hope to prevent the present from mirroring the past.
If you go
Mauthausen, near Linz, is about 21/2 hours from Vienna by train. Trains depart every hour, and passengers must change trains once. Check at Vienna's Westbahnhof (western train station) for schedule information.
The concentration camp is several miles from the Mauthausen train station, so ask the station master to call a taxi to take you. The ride costs about $10. Employees at the camp will call a taxi to take you back to town.
Mauthausen is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. from April to Sept. 30 and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. from Oct. 1 to Dec. 15 and Feb. 1 to March 31. It is closed the rest of the year.
Admission is 2 euros (about $2.30) for adults and 1 euro (about $1.15) for children, students and seniors.