Monstrosity

Curious about places of interest on our drive today, I looked up some possible stops. The first could be seen from the highway, a huge Abbey sitting atop a hill overlooking the Danube. One reviewer called it "a monstrosity". That was enough to peak our interest, and we stopped to check it out. It turned out to be quite awe-inspiring in a slightly gaudy way. The chapel was very ornate and heavily decorated in gold. Although used by the Benedictine monks, it was originally designed as a palace, and that is what draws the buses and boat-loads of visitors.

Our next stop would be quite different, and off the beaten path. It turned out to be quite difficult to find, and there were few signs. This is the Mauthausen Concentration Camp, or what now is a Memorial. Austria is not proud of this part of WWII, and does little to advertise the place.   It was the site of the detention, persecution and murder of thousands of inmates from over 40 nations. Many of the buildings survived intact despite the Nazi efforts to destroy the evidence, and the site has become a memorial sine 1949.
I have never before visited a camp of this sort, and looked forward to the chance to view it first hand.

The first cellar I stepped into led to the shower room. This was the first stop for inmates arriving at the camp. They were stripped, showered and disinfected. Often they were kept in quarantine without clothes or warmth for days. There was a guard for every 10 inmates, and there are endless stories of mistreatment and beatings.
Inmates were made to cut and carry rocks from the nearby  quarry in order to build the camp. Working conditions were so poor, and many died on the "stairs of death" which led up from the quarry. Some, named "parachutists", were pushed to their deaths off the cliffs.

 The hardest rooms to visit were the crematorium and the gas chambers. Three ovens were used to incinerate the corpses. And over 3400 inmates were gassed in the small underground chamber. Before 1942, those that were executed were shot outside the camp and buried in mass graves. After that date, the executions and murders took place in a small basement near the crematorium. Now this room houses the names of 81,000 victims who died there.
The barbwire on the walls, that was highly charged with electricity, are another reminder that thousands did not leave this place alive.

Today the site is covered with memorials. Some are put there by the families of the victims, others donated by various nations in remembrance of their people who suffered and died.


As I posted pictures of this place on facebook, DC commented that they are not the type of post you want to "like".  Comments are difficult as well. This the time when you really want another option, a  "I was moved," button to click.