This last P-day we took the opportunity to visit the Mauthausen concentration camp.
We had two of the lady missionaries from Wels with us. The first thing you notice is a huge hill and on top of that hill is a large stone facility. Immediately, you get the feeling you are walking through a cemetery.
It took us about 2 hours to go through the full tour with audio information.We learned that 40 countries were represented by the prisoners that were there.
There were any number of reasons for becoming a prisoner...nationality, prisoner of war, political prisoners, criminals and just for being out of work.
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| Entrance gate. All photos shown are by Jack Hazut, and can be viewed in their entirety here. |
It took us about 2 hours to go through the full tour with audio information.We learned that 40 countries were represented by the prisoners that were there.
There were any number of reasons for becoming a prisoner...nationality, prisoner of war, political prisoners, criminals and just for being out of work.
This complex had over a period of 4 years 200,000 inmates. There were hundreds of satellite camps all around Austria at the same time. The choice of of location was governed primarily by the presence of granite quarries.
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| The quarry. |
The inmates were first put to work on the construction of the camp. The political function of the camp was primarily constant persecution and detention of supposed political or ideological opponents of Hitler.
Mauthausen was one of two camps with the harshest conditions of confinement within the concentration camp system in the German Reich. The number of inmates soared from 14,000 in 1943 to 84,000 in 1945.
Thousands of prisoners were beaten to death, shot, murdered by lethal injection, or frozen to death. About 10,000 were murdered in the gas chambers. It all consisted of a diabolical plan to dehuminize, degrade, and keep inmates complying.
No one had a name, only a number
The criminal element was allowed to be overseers and got special privileges for their extra cruelty. . They even used boys from ages 12 to 17 as slave labor, with as many as 7000 youths there. There were very few prisoners left alive by the time the US Army came to liberate them May 5, 1945. The SS tried to destroy all records and as many inmates as possible three months before then end of the war.
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| This photo of the 'stairs of death" where prisoners were required to carry blocks of granite came from here |
No one had a name, only a number
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| The contrasting surroundings of the lovely hills and farms are in stark contrast to what went on there. This photo is from here |
I had to ask myself, how could this happen in a civilized world of educated people? The answer I can come up with is apathy and ignorance. People become lulled and immune to tyranny as long as things go well for themselves. The question in my mind: 'Can it happen again?" As long as good men do nothing and allow evil to prosper, sadly, I think, yes.
After this overwhelming history lesson, we went back to our apartment to partake of more peaceful and calming spiritual lessons.
We can be so grateful to live in a free nation, to have freedom of religion and thought. We are so truly blessed.
As they say here: Bis Spater. (until later), Elder and Sister Didenhover
It is hard to imagine another time in history of inhumanity on such a scale...and we have those terrible photos (which I did not include in your post) to help us never forget. I had an experience five years ago in Washington D.C., where I visited the Holocaust museum and left feeling depressed and very disturbed. The next day, still in D.C., I spent time at the World War II memorial, which had a pillar for each state that sent their sons and daughters to battle. Later still that day, in the Kennedy Center, while listening to some gentle folk music the thought came to me that despite the evil, there is much good. We can count those who fought in person, and those who stayed at home and prayed, and even those of us who recoil at simply the thought of such evil, as beacons of good that will also never be forgotten. Sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ is the best way to spread a message of love--if the whole world took John 13:14 to heart there would be no war. Thinking of you on your mission with love!
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