Mauthausen, Austria. On April 30, 1942, the head of the SS Office issued a circular (the “Pohl Circular”) to maximize the exploitation of labor: the German war industry had a growing need for labor. The subcamps arose from the need to shelter the war industries from bombing (in tunnels dug into the mountains) and to decentralize and distribute the enormous number of prisoners needed for this purpose, which could not be concentrated in a single camp, often far from their workplaces. The prisoners were employed in three sectors: infrastructure construction (roads, power plants, and related industries); underground relocation of the war industries (tunnel excavation, machinery installation); and armaments production. In 1942, the main Mauthausen camp took on new functions related to these developments. It served as: the central administrative headquarters for the system of collection, selection, and distribution of slave labor, according to the requests of the various industries; and the financial directorate to control the revenues derived from the rental of prisoner-slaves to the various industries. Central management of the surveillance organization. Consequently, every new transport sent into the Mauthausen area arrived at the main camp, where the prisoners were registered, selected, and prepared for the harsh conditions of discipline and labor in the camp through quarantine. In addition to fulfilling this sorting function, Mauthausen also served as a collection and elimination center for the unfit (who had become so as a result of the treatment they had endured during imprisonment and forced labor) and as a center for the annihilation of specific categories of enemies of the Reich, especially Soviet prisoners of war (gassed), Dutch Jews, and a significant number of Czechoslovakian intellectuals.
