Mauthausen, Austria. The system of Austrian subcamps and underground factory production was completed, ranging from synthetic gasoline plants to high-speed aircraft to more conventional weapons. These camps were often given code names: “Cement” (Ebensee), “Rock Crystal” (St. Georgen near Gusen), “Quartz” (Melk), etc. Thousands of deportees were also employed in external factories, often owned by the SS (the Göringwerke). The work shifts were grueling (12 hours), although those employed in some jobs were provided with slightly better food. But in many camps, work meant death or disability within three months; the sick and disabled were sent to the Revier, to the “Russian Camp” at Mauthausen, or directly eliminated in the gas chambers or by other means. From 1943 onwards, Italians (mostly resistance fighters and anti-fascists) began arriving at Mauthausen. They were treated as traitors by the Nazis, and as fascist enemies by the other deportees (who were unaware of the political changes that had taken place in Italy after July 25). This created a particularly difficult situation that could only be changed after many months. The first Italian transport (October 1943, 300 or 1,000 people) came from the Cairo Montenotte internment camp, which housed citizens of Gorizia, Trieste, and Capodistria, deported by the fascists. Up until February 1945, there were about twenty transports, for a total of deportees that, according to current research, is estimated at around 8,000. At the end of 1943, the deportees from Mauthausen (and subcamps) numbered 25,000 (8,000 from Gusen).
