Photographs and film footage illustrating the liberation of Mauthausen and two of its subcamps, Gusen and Ebensee.
A US soldier with liberated prisoners of the Mauthausen concentration camp. Austria, May 1945.
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Survivors of Mauthausen cheer American soldiers as they pass through the main gate of the camp. The photograph was taken several days after the liberation of the camp. Mauthausen, Austria, May 9, 1945.
Item ViewThis film footage is excerpted from documentary film titled "Mauthausen Concentration Camp," showing footage from both Mauthausen and the nearby Gusen camp. Filmed by US cameramen, the footage opens with a broad view of buildings in the Gusen camp. Excerpts that follow show scenes in the camps, American care of the liberated prisoners, and Austrian civilians loading bodies of victims onto carts for burial.
Item ViewThe Mauthausen concentration camp was established shortly after the German annexation of Austria (1938). Prisoners in the camp were forced to perform crushing labor in a nearby stone quarry and, later, to construct subterranean tunnels for rocket assembly factories. US forces liberated the camp in May 1945. In this footage, starving survivors of the Mauthausen concentration camp eat soup and scramble for potatoes.
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A 13-year-old orphan, a survivor of the Mauthausen concentration camp. Photograph taking following liberation of the camp. Austria, May 1945.
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Emaciated survivors in the Ebensee subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp suck on sugar cubes provided by US soldiers upon the liberation of the camp. Photograph taken by Signal Corps photographer J Malan Heslop. Ebensee, Austria, May 8, 1945.
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Prisoners at the time of liberation of the Ebensee camp, a subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp. This photograph was taken by US Army Signal Corps photographer Arnold E. Samuelson. Austria, May 7, 1945.
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A mass grave at the Mauthausen concentration camp. Photograph taken after the liberation of the camp. Mauthausen, Austria, May 10–15, 1945.
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Piles of corpses, soon after the liberation of the Mauthausen camp. Austria, after May 5, 1945.
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