Gurk is in central Carinthia, north of Klagenfurt. The Nazis picked the small town of Mauthausen in upper Austria as the location for a concentration camp because of its reputation as a quarrying centre. Prisoners toiled in the granite quarry and all too often perished on the so-called Stairway of Death leading from the quarry to the camp. Some 200,000 prisoners died or were executed in the camp from 1938 to 1945. A museum tells the story of this and other German concentration camps in Austria using German text, charts, artefacts and many harrowing photos.
Visitors can see the inmates' living quarters and the infamous gas chambers.
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