Täglich Wiederkehrendes Abenteuer

On Saturday, we went to Mauthausen, which is the site of a former concentration camp.  It’s not far away; only a 50 minute bus ride.  The weather was nice for a little while.  The birds were singing and the countryside out there is actually quite pretty.  It’s a bit weird considering the unspeakable things that happened there.  The exhibits we were able to to see included graphic photos and descriptions.  A visit to Mauthausen is not recommended for those under 14.  And you can really see just about all of the workings of the camp including barracks, gas chambers, dissecting tables, the rock quarry where prisoners were forced to work, and ovens.  We took some pictures; mostly of the outside and the general grounds.  As usual, click for larger. I’m sure there are other pictures floating around on the internet if you’re interested in such things.  Here we are walking the country road on the way there.  I joked that since we couldn’t see past the crest of the hill, it could be the end of the world for all we knew.

This is the main entrance into the camp.

Many different nations have erected memorials to those who died here.

We decided to explore this path.

We left the path for a bit and discovered a dilapidated hut.

This is one of the pools in the quarry.  You can see where it drops off.

This is the quarry.  You can see some people to get a feel for how big it is.

We’re on our way back up the stairs.  I stopped to get a rock out of my shoe.

But I really have nothing to complain about.  Like I said in the video, these were called the Death Stairs.  Prisoners were forced to carry their stone up these stairs, which in those days were not nearly as evenly shaped and easy to climb.  The stones weighed up to 50 kilograms, about 110 pounds.  The prisoners would carry these up the stairs on their backs.  Often the guards would purposely trip or push the people in front and all of the workers would tumble down on top of each other in a heap.  Keep in mind they were carrying huge 110 pound rocks.  And if you were injured and couldn’t work, you would die.

There was also a high wall of the quarry that inmates were sometimes pushed off of.  Some also jumped of their own accord.  The guards called these “parachute jumpers.”

The quarry from above.

Later, it started to rain.

Austria and Germany are such nice, advanced countries, it’s so odd to me that such a thing happened here in the last century.  However, I think it’s important that it is remembered and it should remind us of all the innocent people in the world today who are suffering and dying for no good reason.  They were simply born in the wrong place, they are the “wrong” ethnicity, they fall in love with someone of the “wrong” sex, or they have “wrong” opinions.