page_title: Mauthausen concentration camp
section_title: Death toll
hierarchical_section_title: Mauthausen concentration camp / Inmates / Death toll
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: KZ Mauthausen (Hauptlager): Grundriss des "Exekutionskellers": A– Treppe zum Hof des Arrestblocks; B– Treppe zum Appellplatz; C– Treppe zum Hof des Revierblocks; D– Toilette; E– Aufenthalts- und Waschraum; F– Dienstzimmer des SS-Kommandoführers des Lagerkrematoriums; G– Maschinenraum (für die Klimaanlage des benachbarten Leichenkühlraums); H– Sezierraum; I– Leichenkühlraum; J– Exekutionsraum; K– Gaskammer; L– Gaszelle; M– Geräteraum; N– Auskleideraum; O– Waschraum; P– Keller des Revierblocks; 1– Einäscherungsofen Nr. 1; 2– Seziertisch; 3– Galgen; 4– Genickschussecke; 5– Standort des Einäscherungsofens Nr. 2; 6– vermauerte Zugänge; 7– Einäscherungsofen Nr. 3; 8– untere Bodenebene für Ofenzugang. Die als "Exekutionskeller" bezeichneten Räume befinden sich unterhalb des Arrestblocks sowie des Revierblocks. English: Mauthausen concentration camp (main camp): floor plan of the "execution cellar": A– stairs to courtyard of the Arrest Block; B– stairs to roll-call square; C– stairs to courtyard of the Infirmary Block; D– toilet; E– lounge and washroom; F– duty room of the SS man in charge of the camp crematorium; G– engine room (for the air conditioning system of the neighbouring mortuary); H– dissecting room; I– mortuary; J– execution room; K– gas chamber; L– gas cell; M– equipment room; N– undressing room; O– washroom; P– cellar of the Infirmary Block; 1– cremation oven no. 1; 2 – dissecting table; 3– gallows; 4– neck shooting corner; 5– location of cremation oven no. 2; 6– blocked accesses; 7– cremation oven no. 3; 8– lower ground level for oven access. The rooms called "execution cellar" are located beneath the Arrest Block and the Infirmary Block.
context_page_description: Mauthausen was a Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen, Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with nearly 100 further subcamps located throughout Austria and southern Germany. The three Gusen concentration camps in and around the village of St Georgen/Gusen, just a few kilometres from Mauthausen, held a significant proportion of prisoners within the camp complex, at times exceeding the number of prisoners at the Mauthausen main camp.
  The Mauthausen main camp operated from the time of the Anschluss, when Austria was united with Nazi Germany on 8 August 1938, to 5 May 1945, at the end of the European theatre of Second World War. Starting with the camp at Mauthausen, the number of subcamps expanded over time and by the summer of 1940 Mauthausen and its subcamps had become one of the largest labour camp complexes in the German-controlled part of Europe.
  As at other Nazi concentration camps, the inmates at Mauthausen and its subcamps were forced to work as slave labour, under conditions that caused many deaths. Mauthausen and its subcamps included quarries, munitions factories, mines, arms factories and plants assembling Me 262 fighter aircraft.
context_section_description: The Germans destroyed much of the camp's files and evidence and often allocated newly arrived prisoners the camp numbers of those who had already been killed, so the exact death toll of Mauthausen and its subcamps is impossible to calculate. The matter is further complicated due to some of the inmates of Gusen being murdered in Mauthausen, and at least 3,423 were sent to Hartheim Castle, 40.7 km (25.3 mi) away. Also, several thousands were killed in mobile gas chambers, without any mention of the exact number of victims in the remaining files. 
  Before their escape from the camps on 4 May 1945, the SS tried to destroy the evidence, allowing only approximately 40,000 victims to be identified. During the first days after the liberation, the camp's main chancellery was seized by the members of a Polish inmate resistance organization; they secured it against the wishes of other inmates who wanted to burn it. After the war, the archives of the main chancellery was brought by one of the survivors to Poland, then passed to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum in Oświęcim. Parts of the death register of Gusen I camp were secured by the Polish inmates, who took it to Australia after the war. In 1969 the files were given to the International Red Cross International Tracing Service.
  The surviving camp archives include personal files of 37,411 murdered prisoners, including 22,092 Poles, 5,024 Spaniards, 2,843 Soviet prisoners of war and 7,452 inmates of 24 other nationalities. 38,120 Jews died in Mauthausen. The surviving parts of the death register of KZ Gusen list an additional 30,536 names.
  Apart from the surviving camp files of the subcamps of Mauthausen, the main documents used for an estimation of the death toll of the camp complexes are:
  A report by Józef Żmij, a survivor who had been working in the Gusen I camp's chancellery. His report is based on personally-made copies of yearly reports from the period between 1940 and 1944, and the camps' commander's daily reports for the period between 1 January 1945 and the day of the liberation.
  Original death register for the subcamp of Gusen held by the International Red Cross
  Personal notes of Stanisław Nogaj, another inmate who had been working in the chancellery of Gusen
  Death register prepared by the SS chief medic of the Mauthausen main chancellery for the subcamps of Gusen (similar records for the Mauthausen subcamp itself were destroyed)
  As a result of these factors, the exact death toll of the entire system of Mauthausen and its subcamps varies considerably from source to source. Various scholars place it at between 122,766 and 320,000, with other numbers also frequently quoted being 200,000 and "over 150,000". Various historians place the total death toll in the four main camps of Mauthausen, Gusen I, Gusen II and Gusen III at between 55,000 and 60,000. In addition, during the first month after the liberation additional 1,042 prisoners died in American field hospitals.
  Out of approximately 320,000 prisoners who were incarcerated in various subcamps of Mauthausen throughout the war, only approximately 80,000 survived, including between 20,487 and 21,386 in Gusen I, II and III.
caption: Floor plan of the "execution cellar" at Mauthausen, with the location of the cremation ovens
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