Mauthausen - Gusen concentration camp Mauthausen - Gusen concentration camp grew to become a large group of German concentration camps that was built around the villages of Mauthausen and Gusen in Upper Austria , roughly east of the city of Linz . Its history ran from the time of the Anschluss in 1938 to the beginning of May 1945 . Initially a single camp at Mauthausen , it expanded over time and by the summer of 1940 , Mauthausen had become one of the largest labour camp complexes in German - controlled Europe . Apart from the four main sub - camps at Mauthausen and nearby Gusen , more than 50 sub - camps , located throughout Austria and southern Germany , used the inmates as slave labour . Several subordinate camps of the KZ Mauthausen complex included quarries , munition s factories , mines , arms factories and Me 262 fighter - plane assembly plants . In January 1945 , the camps , directed from the central office in Mauthausen , contained roughly 85 , 000 inmates . The death toll remains unknown , although most sources place it between 122 , 766 and 320 , 000 for the entire complex . The camps formed one of the first massive concentration camp complexes in Nazi Germany , and were the last ones to be liberated by the Allies . The two main camps , Mauthausen and Gusen I , were labelled as " Grade III " ( " Stufe III " ) camps , which meant that they were intended to be the toughest camps for the " Incorrigible Political Enemies of the Reich " . Mauthausen never lost this " Stufe III " classification . In the offices of the RSHA ( " Reichssicherheitshauptamt " ) it was referred to by the nickname " Knochenmühle " — the bone - grinder . Unlike many other concentration camps , which were intended for all categories of prisoners , Mauthausen was mostly used for extermination through labour of the " intelligentsia , " who were educated people and members of the higher social classes in countries subjugated by the Nazi regime during World War II . History . KL Mauthausen . On August 7 , 1938 prisoners from Dachau concentration camp were sent to the town of Mauthausen near Linz , Austria , to begin the construction of a new camp . The site was chosen as a site for a slave labour camp because of the nearby granite quarry , and due to its proximity to Linz . Although the camp was , from the beginning of its existence , controlled by the German state , it was founded by a private company as an economic enterprise . The owner of the Wiener - Graben quarry ( the Marbacher - Bruch and Bettelberg quarries ) was a DEST Company : an acronym for " Deutsche Erd - und Steinwerke GmbH " . The company , led by Oswald Pohl , who was also a high - ranking official of the SS , rented the quarries from the City of Vienna in 1938 and started the construction of the Mauthausen camp . A year later , the company ordered the construction of the first camp at Gusen . The granite mined in the quarries had previously been used to pave the streets of Vienna , but the Nazi authorities envisioned a complete reconstruction of major German towns in accordance with plans of Albert Speer and other architects of Nazi architecture , for which large quantities of granite were needed . The money needed for the construction of the Mauthausen camp was gathered from a variety of sources , including commercial loans from Dresdner Bank and Prague - based Escompte Bank , the so - called Reinhardt ' s fund ( meaning money stolen from the inmates of the concentration camps themselves ) ; and from the German Red Cross . Mauthausen initially served as a strictly - run prison camp for common criminals , prostitutes and other categories of " Incorrigible Law Offenders " . On 8 May 1939 it was converted to a labour camp which was mainly used for the incarceration of political prisoners . KL Gusen . " ( . . . ) In March 1940 I was brought to Mauthausen to build the Gusen camp . The building tempo had to be accelerated , because the " Aktion gegen die polnische Intelligenz " was designated for the month of April . What no one knew in the home country , we knew - the SS - men who were beating us , told us that we build a camp for our rotten brothers from Poland , who today can still spend Easter uneventfully , without an inkling what awaits them . They called the camp under construction Gusen " Vernichtungslager fur die polnische Intelligenz " " . - Stefan Józefowicz bank headmaster no . 1129 in Mauthausen , 43069 Gusen . DEST started to purchase a lot of land at Gusen in May 1938 . In the years 1938 and 1939 , inmates of the nearby Mauthausen makeshift camp marched daily to the granite - quarries at Gusen which were more productive and more important for DEST than the Wienergraben Quarry . In late 1939 , the not yet finished Mauthausen camp was already overcrowded with prisoners since Germany started the war against Poland in September 1939 . Their numbers rose from 1 , 080 in late 1938 to over 3 , 000 a year later . About that time the construction of a new camp " for the Poles " began in Gusen , about away . The new camp ( later named Gusen I ) became operational in May 1940 . The first inmates were put in the first two huts ( No . 7 and 8 ) on 17 April 1940 , while the first transport of prisoners - mostly from the camps in Dachau and Sachsenhausen - arrived on 25 May of the same year . The new camp at Gusen saved the inmates of Mauthausen the daily march between both locations . Like nearby Mauthausen , the Gusen camp also rented inmates out to various local businesses as slave labourers . In October 1941 , several huts were separated from the Gusen sub - camp by barbed wire and turned into a separate " Prisoner of War Labour Camp " ( ) . This camp had many prisoners of war ; mostly Soviet officers . By 1942 the production capacity of both Mauthausen and Gusen had reached its peak . Gusen was expanded to include the central depot of the SS , where various goods , which had been seized from occupied territories , were sorted and then dispatched to Germany . Local quarries and businesses were in constant need of a new source of labour as more and more Austrians were drafted into the Wehrmacht . In March 1944 , the former SS depot was converted to a new sub - camp , and was named Gusen II . Until the end of the war the depot served as an improvised concentration camp . The camp contained about 12 , 000 to 17 , 000 inmates , who were deprived of even the most basic facilities . In December 1944 , another part of Gusen was opened in nearby Lungitz . Here , parts of a factory infrastructure were converted into the third sub - camp of Gusen — Gusen III . The rise in the number of sub - camps could not catch up with the rising number of inmates , which led to overcrowding of the huts in all of the sub - camps of Mauthausen - Gusen . From late 1940 to 1944 , the number of inmates per bed rose from 2 to 4 . Mauthausen - Gusen camp system . As the production in all of the sub - camps of Mauthausen - Gusen complex was constantly rising , so was the number of detainees and the number of the sub - camps themselves . Although initially the camps of Gusen and Mauthausen mostly served the local quarries , from 1942 , and onwards , they began to be included in the German war machine . To accommodate the ever - increasing number of slave workers , additional sub - camps ( ) of Mauthausen were built . By the end of the war , the list included 101 camps ( including 49 major sub - camps ) which covered most of modern Austria , from Mittersill south of Salzburg to Schwechat east of Vienna and from Passau on the pre - war Austro - German border to the Loibl Pass on the border with Yugoslavia . The sub - camps were divided into several categories , depending on their main function : " Produktionslager " for factory workers , " Baulager " for construction , " Aufräumlager " for cleaning the rubble in Allied - bombed towns , and " Kleinlager " ( small camps ) where the inmates were working specifically for the SS . Mauthausen - Gusen as a business enterprise . The production output of Mauthausen - Gusen exceeded that of each of the five other large slave labour centres , including : Auschwitz - Birkenau , Flossenbürg , Gross - Rosen , Marburg and Natzweiler - Struthof , in terms of both production quota and profits . The list of companies using slave labour from the Mauthausen - Gusen camp system was long , and included both national corporations and small , local firms and communities . Some parts of the quarries were converted into a Mauser machine pistol assembly plant . In 1943 , an underground factory for the Steyr - Daimler - Puch company was built in Gusen . Altogether , 45 larger companies took part in making KZ Mauthausen - Gusen one of the most profitable concentration camps of Nazi Germany , with more than 11 , 000 , 000 Reichsmark of the profits in 1944 alone ( EUR as of 2018 ) . Among them were : Prisoners were also ' rented out ' as slave labour , and were exploited in various ways , such as working for local farms , for road construction , reinforcing and repairing the banks of the Danube , and the construction of large residential areas in Sankt Georgen as well as being forced to excavate archaeological sites in Spielberg . When the Allied strategic bombing campaign started to target the German war industry , German planners decided to move production to underground facilities that were impenetrable to enemy aerial bombardment . In Gusen I , the prisoners were ordered to build several large tunnels beneath the hills surrounding the camp ( code - named " Kellerbau " ) . By the end of World War II the prisoners had dug to house a small arms factory . In January 1944 , similar tunnels were also built beneath the village of Sankt Georgen by the inmates of Gusen II sub - camp ( code - named " Bergkristall " ) . They dug roughly so the Messerschmitt company could build an assembly plant to produce the Messerschmitt Me 262 and V - 2 rocket s . In addition to planes , some of Gusen II tunnels served as factories for various war materials . In late 1944 , roughly 11 , 000 of the Gusen I and II inmates were working in underground facilities . An additional 6 , 500 worked on expanding the underground network of tunnels and halls . In 1945 , the Me 262 works was already finished and the Germans were able to assemble 1 , 250 planes a month . This was the second largest plane factory in Germany after the Mittelbau - Dora concentration camp , which was also underground . Extermination through labour . The political function of the camp continued in parallel with its economic role . Until at least 1942 , it was used for the imprisonment and murder of Germany ' s political and ideological enemies , both real and imagined . The camp served the needs of the German war machine and also carried out extermination through labour . When the inmates were totally exhausted after having worked in the quarries for 12 hours a day , or if they were too ill or too weak to work , they were then transferred to the Revier ( " Krankenrevier " , sick barrack ) or other places for extermination . Initially , the camp did not have a gas chamber of its own and the so - called Muselmänner , or prisoners who were too sick to work , after being maltreated , under - nourished or exhausted , were then transferred to other concentration camps for extermination ( mostly to the infamous Hartheim Castle , which was away ) , or killed by lethal injection and cremated in the local crematorium . The growing number of prisoners made the system too expensive and from 1940 , Mauthausen was one of the few camps in the West to use a gas chamber on a regular basis . In the beginning , an improvised mobile gas chamber – a van with the exhaust pipe connected to the inside – shuttled between Mauthausen and Gusen . By December 1941 , a permanent gas chamber that could kill about 120 prisoners at a time was completed . The Chief SS Doctor was Eduard Krebsbach . Also names associated with the camp are Dr Hans Eisele , Dr Aribert Heim , SS - Hauptsturmführer Alfons Bentele , and SS Ubersturmfuehrer , Guido Reimer . Dr Karl Josef Gross conducted experiments on prisoners ; SS - number 314 . 902 . Inmates . Until early 1940 , the largest group of inmates consisted of German , Austrian and Czechoslovak socialists , communists , anarchists , homosexuals , and people of Roma origin . Other groups of people to be persecuted solely on religious grounds were the " Sectarians " , as they were dubbed by the Nazi regime , meaning Bible Students and Jehovah ' s Witnesses . The reason for their imprisonment was their total rejection of giving the loyalty oath to Hitler and their absolute refusal to participate in any kind of military service . In early 1940 , a large number of Poles were transferred to the Mauthausen - Gusen complex . The first groups were mostly composed of artists , scientists , Boy Scouts , teachers , and university professors , who were arrested during Intelligenzaktion and the course of the AB Action . Camp Gusen II was called by Germans " Vernichtungslager fur die polnische Intelligenz " ( " Extermination camp for Polish intelligentsia " ) . Later in the war , new arrivals were from every category of the " unwanted " , but educated people and so - called political prisoners constituted the largest part of all inmates until the end of the war . During World War II , large groups of Spanish Republicans were also transferred to Mauthausen and its sub - camps . Most of them were former Republican soldiers or activists who had fled to France after Franco ' s victory and then were captured by German forces after the French defeat in 1940 or handed over to the Germans by the Vichy authorities . The largest of these groups arrived at Gusen in January 1941 . In early 1941 , almost all the Poles and Spaniards , except for a small group of specialists working in the quarry ' s stone mill , were transferred from Mauthausen to Gusen . Following the outbreak of the Soviet - German War in 1941 the camps started to receive a large number of Soviet POWs . Most of them were kept in huts separated from the rest of the camp . The Soviet prisoners of war were a major part of the first groups to be gassed in the newly built gas chamber in early 1942 . In 1944 , a large group of Hungarian and Dutch Jews , about 8 , 000 people altogether , was also transferred to the camp . Much like all the other large groups of prisoners that were transferred to Mauthausen - Gusen , most of them either died as a result of the hard labour and poor conditions , or were deliberately killed . Throughout the years of World War II , the camps of Mauthausen - Gusen received new prisoners in smaller transports on a daily basis ; mostly from other concentration camps in German - occupied Europe . Most of the prisoners in the sub - camps of Mauthausen were kept in various detention sites prior to transportation to their final destination . The most notable of such centres for Mauthausen - Gusen were the infamous camps at Dachau and Auschwitz . The first transports from Auschwitz arrived in February 1942 . The second transport in June of that year was much larger and numbered some 1 , 200 prisoners . Similar groups were sent from Auschwitz to Gusen and Mauthausen in April and November 1943 , and then in January and February 1944 . Finally , after Adolf Eichmann visited Mauthausen in May of that year , KZ Mauthausen - Gusen received the first group of roughly 8 , 000 Hungarian Jews from Auschwitz ; the first group to be evacuated from that camp before the Soviet advance . Initially , the groups evacuated from Auschwitz consisted of qualified workers for the ever - growing industry of the Mauthausen - Gusen camp complex , but as the evacuation proceeded other categories of people were also transported to Mauthausen , Gusen , Vienna or Melk . Over time , Auschwitz had to almost stop accepting new prisoners and most were directed to Mauthausen instead . The last group — roughly 10 , 000 prisoners — was evacuated in the last wave in January 1945 , only a few weeks before the Soviet liberation of the Auschwitz - Birkenau complex . Among them was a large group of civilians arrested by the Germans after the failure of the Warsaw Uprising , but by the liberation not more than 500 of them were still alive . Altogether , during the final months of the war , 23 , 364 prisoners from other concentration camp s arrived at the camp complex . Many more perished during death marches , where they dropped dead because of pure exhaustion , or in railway wagons , where the prisoners were confined at sub - zero temperatures — without adequate food or water — for several days prior to their arrival . Prisoner transports were considered to be less important than other important services , and could be kept on sidings for days as other trains passed . Many of those who survived the journey died before they could be registered , whilst others were given the camp numbers of prisoners who had already been killed . Most were then accommodated in the camps or in the newly established tent camp ( ) just outside the Mauthausen sub - camp , where roughly 2 , 000 people were forced into tents intended for not more than 800 inmates , and then starved to death . As in all other German concentration camps , not all the prisoners were equal . Their treatment depended largely on the category assigned to each inmate , as well as their nationality and rank within the system . The so - called kapos , or prisoners who had been recruited by their captors to police their fellow prisoners , were given more food and higher pay in the form of concentration camp coupons which could be exchanged for cigarettes in the canteen , as well as a separate room inside most barracks . In addition , following Himmler ' s order in June , 1941 , a brothel was opened for them in 1942 , in the Mauthausen and Gusen I camps . The Kapos formed the main part of the so - called " Prominents " ( ) , or prisoners who were given a much better treatment than the average inmate . Women and children in Mauthausen . Although the Mauthausen camp complex was mostly a labour camp for men , a women ' s camp was opened in Mauthausen , in September 1944 , with the first transport of female prisoners from Auschwitz . Eventually , more women and children came to Mauthausen from Ravensbrück , Bergen - Belsen , Gross - Rosen , and Buchenwald . With them came some female guards . Twenty are known to have served in the Mauthausen camp , and sixty in the whole camp complex . Female guards also staffed the Mauthausen sub - camps at Hirtenberg , Lenzing ( the main women ' s sub - camp in Austria ) , and Sankt Lambrecht . The Chief Overseers at Mauthausen were firstly Margarete Freinberger , and then Jane Bernigau . Of all the female Overseers who served in Mauthausen , almost all of them were recruited between September and November 1944 , from Austrian cities and towns . In early April 1945 , at least 2 , 500 more female prisoners came from the female sub - camps at Amstetten , St . Lambrecht , Hirtenberg , and the Flossenbürg sub - camp at Freiberg . It is rumoured that Hildegard Lächert also served at Mauthausen . The available Mauthausen inmate statistics from the spring of 1943 , shows that there were 2 , 400 prisoners below the age of 20 , which was 12 . 8 % of the 18 , 655 population . By late March 1945 , the number of juvenile prisoners in Mauthausen increased to 15 , 048 , which was 19 . 1 % of the 78 , 547 Mauthausen inmates . The number of imprisoned children increased 6 . 2 times , whereas the total number of adult prisoners during the same period multiplied by a factor of only four . These numbers reflected the increasing use of Polish , Czech , Russian , and Balkan teenagers as slave labour as the war continued . Statistics showing the composition of juvenile inmates shortly before their liberation reveal the following major child / prisoner sub - groups : 5 , 809 foreign civilian labourers , 5 , 055 political prisoners , 3 , 654 Jews , and 330 Russian POWs . There were also 23 Roma children , 20 so - called " anti - social elements " , 6 Spaniards , and 3 Jehovah ' s Witnesses . The treatment of inmates and methodology of crime . Although not the only concentration camp where the German authorities implemented their extermination through labour ( " Vernichtung durch Arbeit " ) , Mauthausen was one of the most brutal and severe . The conditions within the camp were considered exceptionally hard to bear , even by concentration camp standards . The inmates suffered not only from malnutrition , overcrowded huts and constant abuse and beatings by the guards and kapos , but also from exceptionally hard labour . As there were too many prisoners in Mauthausen to have all of them work in its quarry at the same time , many were put to work in workshops , or had to do other manual work , whilst the unfortunate ones who were selected to work in the quarry were only there because of their so - called " crimes " in the camp . The reasons for sending them to work in the " Punishment - Detail " were trivial , and included such " crimes " as not saluting a German passing by . The work in the quarries — often in unbearable heat or in temperatures as low as — led to exceptionally high mortality rates . The food rations were limited , and during the 1940 – 1942 period , an average inmate weighed 40 kilograms , roughly 88 pounds . It is estimated that the average energy content of food rations dropped from about 1 , 750 calories a day during the 1940 – 1942 period , to between 1 , 150 and 1 , 460 during the next period . In 1945 , the energy content was even lower and did not exceed 600 to 1 , 000 calories a day ; that is less than a third of the energy needed by an average worker in heavy industry . This led to the starvation of thousands of inmates . The inmates of Mauthausen , Gusen I , and Gusen II had access to a separate part of the camp for the sick — the so - called " Krankenlager " . Despite the fact that ( roughly ) 100 medics from among the inmates were working there , they were not given any medication and could offer only basic first aid . Thus the " hospital camp " – as it was called by the German authorities – was , in fact , the last stop before death for thousands of inmates , and very few had a chance to recover . The rock - quarry in Mauthausen was at the base of the infamous " Stairs of Death " . Prisoners were forced to carry roughly - hewn blocks of stone — often weighing as much as — up the 186 stairs - one behind the other . As a result , many exhausted prisoners collapsed in front of the other prisoners in the line , and then fell on top of the other prisoners , creating a horrific domino effect ; the first prisoner falling onto the next , and so on , all the way down the stairs . Such brutality was not accidental . The SS guards would often force prisoners — exhausted from hours of hard labour without sufficient food and water — to race up the stairs carrying blocks of stone . Those who survived the ordeal would often be placed in a line - up at the edge of a cliff known as " The Parachutists Wall " ( ) . At gun - point each prisoner would have the option of being shot or pushing the prisoner in front of him off the cliff . Other common methods of extermination of prisoners who were either sick , unfit for further labour or as a means of collective responsibility or after escape attempts included : After the war one of the survivors , Dr . Antoni Gościński reported 62 ways of murdering people in the camps of Gusen I and Mauthausen . Hans Maršálek estimated that an average life expectancy of newly arrived prisoners in Gusen varied from 6 months between 1940 and 1942 , to less than 3 months in early 1945 . Paradoxically , with the growth of forced labour industry in various sub - camps of Mauthausen , the situation of some of the prisoners improved significantly . While the food rations were increasingly limited every month , the heavy industry necessitated skilled specialists rather than unqualified workers and the brutality of the camp ' s SS and Kapos was limited . While the prisoners were still beaten on a daily basis and the Muselmänner were still exterminated , from early 1943 on some of the factory workers were allowed to receive food parcels from their families ( mostly Poles and Frenchmen ) . This allowed many of them not only to evade the risk of starvation , but also to help other prisoners who had no relatives outside the camps — or who were not allowed to receive parcels . Death toll . Because the Germans destroyed much of the camp ' s files and evidence and often gave newly arrived prisoners the camp numbers of those who had already been killed , the exact death toll of the Mauthausen - Gusen complex 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 sent to Hartheim Castle , away . Also , several thousands were killed in mobile gas chambers , without any mention of the exact number of victims in the remaining files . The SS , before their escape from the camps on 4 May 1945 , tried to destroy the evidence , allowing approximately only 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 ; secured against the wishes of other inmates , who wanted to burn it . After the war , 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 . The surviving parts of the death register of KZ Gusen list an additional 30 , 536 names . Apart from the surviving camp files of the sub - camps of Mauthausen , the main documents used for an estimation of the death toll of the camp complexes are : Because of that the exact death toll of the entire Mauthausen - Gusen concentration camp system 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 1042 prisoners died in American field hospitals . Out of approximately 320 , 000 prisoners who were incarcerated in various sub - camps of KZ Mauthausen - Gusen throughout the war , only approximately 80 , 000 survived , including between 20 , 487 and 21 , 386 in Gusen I , II and III . Staff . Several Norwegian Waffen SS volunteers worked as guards or as instructors for prisoners from Nordic countries , according to senior researcher at Center for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities — Terje Emberland . Liberation and post - war heritage . During the final months before liberation , the camp ' s commander Franz Ziereis prepared for its defence against a possible Soviet offensive . Most of the inmates of German and Austrian nationality " volunteered " for the SS - Freiwillige Häftlingsdivision , an SS unit composed mostly of former concentration camp inmates and headed by Oskar Dirlewanger . The remaining prisoners were rushed to build a line of granite anti - tank obstacles to the east of Mauthausen . The inmates unable to cope with the hard labour and malnutrition were exterminated in large numbers to free space for newly arrived evacuation transports from other camps , including most of the sub - camps of Mauthausen - Gusen located in eastern Austria . In the final months of the war , the main source of calories , that is the parcels of food sent through the International Red Cross , stopped and food rations became catastrophically low . The prisoners transferred to the " Hospital Sub - camp " received one piece of bread per 20 inmates and roughly half a litre of weed soup a day . This made some of the prisoners , previously engaged in various types of resistance activity , begin to prepare plans to defend the camp in case of an SS attempt to exterminate all the remaining inmates . It is not known why the prisoners of Gusen I and II were not exterminated " en - masse " , despite direct orders from Heinrich Himmler ; Ziereis ' plan assumed rushing all the prisoners into the tunnels of the underground factories of Kellerbau and blowing up the entrances . The plan was known to one of the Polish resistance organizations which started an ambitious plan of gathering tools necessary to dig air vents in the entrances . On 28 April , under cover of a fictional air - raid alarm , some 22 , 000 prisoners of Gusen were rushed into the tunnels . However , after several hours in the tunnels all of the prisoners were allowed to return to the camp . Stanisław Dobosiewicz , the author of a monumental monograph of the Mauthausen - Gusen complex , explains that one of the possible causes of the failure of the German plan was that the Polish prisoners managed to cut the fuse wires . Ziereis himself stated in his testimony written on 25 May that it was his wife who convinced him not to follow the order from above . Although the plan was abandoned , the prisoners feared that the SS might want to massacre the prisoners by other means . Because of that the Polish , Soviet and French prisoners prepared a plan for an assault on the barracks of the SS guards in order to seize the arms necessary to put up a fight . A similar plan was also devised by the Spanish inmates . On 3 May the SS and other guards started to prepare for evacuation of the camp . The following day , the guards of Mauthausen were replaced with unarmed Volkssturm soldiers and an improvised unit formed of elderly police officers and fire fighters evacuated from Vienna . The police officer in charge of the unit accepted the " inmate self - government " as the camp ' s highest authority and Martin Gerken , until then the highest - ranking kapo prisoner in the Gusen ' s administration ( in the rank of " Lagerälteste " , or the " Camp ' s Elder " ) , became the new " de facto " commander . He attempted to create an International Prisoner Committee that would become a provisional governing body of the camp until it was liberated by one of the approaching armies , but he was openly accused of co - operation with the SS and the plan failed . All work in the sub - camps of Mauthausen stopped and the inmates focused on preparations for their liberation - or defence of the camps against a possible assault by the SS divisions concentrated in the area . The remnants of several German divisions indeed assaulted the Mauthausen sub - camp , but were repelled by the prisoners who took over the camp . Out of all the main sub - camps of Mauthausen - Gusen only Gusen III was to be evacuated . On 1 May the inmates were rushed on a death march towards Sankt Georgen , but were ordered to return to the camp after several hours . The operation was repeated the following day , but called off soon afterwards . The following day , the SS guards deserted the camp , leaving the prisoners to their fate . On 5 May 1945 the camp at Mauthausen was approached by a squad of US Army Soldiers of the 41st Reconnaissance Squadron of the US 11th Armored Division , 3rd US Army . The reconnaissance squad was led by Staff Sergeant Albert J . Kosiek . His troop disarmed the policemen and left the camp . By the time of its liberation , most of the SS - men of Mauthausen had already fled ; however , some 30 who were left were killed by the prisoners ; a similar number were killed in Gusen II . By 6 May all the remaining sub - camps of the Mauthausen - Gusen camp complex , with the exception of the two camps in the Loibl Pass , were also liberated by American forces . Among the inmates liberated from the camp was Lieutenant Jack Taylor , an officer of the Office of Strategic Services . He had managed to survive with the help of several prisoners and was later a key witness at the Mauthausen - Gusen camp trials carried out by the Dachau International Military Tribunal . Another of the camp ' s survivors was Simon Wiesenthal , an engineer who spent the rest of his life hunting Nazi war criminal s . Future Medal of Honor recipient Tibor " Ted " Rubin was imprisoned there as a young teenager ; a Hungarian Jew , he vowed to join the U . S . Army upon his liberation and later did just that , distinguishing himself in the Korean War as a corporal in the 8th Cavalry Regiment , 1st Cavalry Division . Following the capitulation of Germany , the Mauthausen - Gusen complex fell within the Soviet sector of occupation of Austria . Initially , the Soviet authorities used parts of the Mauthausen and Gusen I camps as barracks for the Red Army . At the same time , the underground factories were being dismantled and sent to the USSR as a war booty . After that , between 1946 and 1947 , the camps were unguarded and many furnishings and facilities of the camp were dismantled , both by the Red Army and by the local population . In the early summer of 1947 , the Soviet forces had blown the tunnels up and were then withdrawn from the area , while the camp was turned over to Austrian civilian authorities . Memorials . It was not until 1949 that it was declared a national memorial site . Finally , 30 years after the camp ' s liberation , on 3 May 1975 , Chancellor Bruno Kreisky officially opened the Mauthausen Museum . Decades later , in 2003 , a Visitor Centre was inaugurated , designed by the architects Herwig Mayer , Christoph Schwarz , and Karl Peyrer - Heimstätt , with an area of 2 , 845 m² . Unlike Mauthausen , much of what constituted the sub - camps of Gusen I , II and III is now covered by residential areas built after the war .