Posted on May 08, 2025 at 6:11 pm. / Modified on May 08, 2025 at 20:07.
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Along a relatively frequented road, it goes almost unnoticed: the inscription “Memorial” affixed at the top of a gray building, which seems lost in the middle of others. However, this is where the Gusen concentration camp Memorial is located. Located in the north of Austria, Gusen was built in 1939 as annex to the Mauthausen camp, which is located 4 km away. But he will quickly become the largest and deadliest camp in Austria. Between 1939 and 1945, 71,000 people were deported there, nearly 30 different nationalities, including many Poles. More than 35,000 of them will die there.
Gusen was known for his extremely hard conditions of detention, which would be nicknamed “the hell of hell” by the survivors. We are therefore surprised, by entering this memorial, by the few remaining vestiges. We see several steles, the crematorial oven and just a few meters from it, separated by a simple wall, several houses, clearly visible.
