Mauthausen, Austria. Mauthausen was classified by Himmler as a “level III camp” (i.e., the most rigorous), meaning the extermination of prisoners, whether through labor or not. By the end of the year, the camp system held nearly 16,000 prisoners; approximately 8,500 were concentrated in Gusen. By late 1941, the camp’s configuration was as it is today. Three areas can be identified: 1) the main camp, located atop a hill, enclosed on the southern side by a large, four-meter-high granite wall with towers and entrances, supplemented by barbed wire and electrified fences; to the north, the fence was incomplete, and fences prevailed. This area housed the prisoners’ barracks, the roll call square, shower and disinfection rooms, kitchens, and, starting in 1941, the Bunker: a largely underground complex with cells, rooms for medical experiments and executions, a crematorium, and a gas chamber (see below); 2) the granite quarry, 100 meters deep and one kilometer long, accessed by descending a long staircase with uneven and irregular steps. Between 1,000 and 3,000 prisoners worked there, including those assigned to the “punishment detachment” (Strafkommando), forced to carry rocks weighing 50 kilos or more on their shoulders; many prisoners were thrown down the stairs or from the quarry walls; 3) the “hospital camp” (Krankenlager), a rectangular area containing about ten barracks, with a kitchen and toilets, located below the main camp, next to the access road. Surrounded by electrified fences, it was called the “Russian Camp” (from the Italian “Camporosso”) because it was originally intended for Soviet prisoners of war; but from 1943 it was used for the sick and disabled and became a separate facility, while Soviet prisoners were locked up in barracks 16-19 of the main camp (quarantine) or in barrack 20, further isolated with barbed wire, where 500 prisoners, in February 1945, staged a mass escape in which only three people survived.
