Post #28183

🌟On the night of February 1-2, 1945, more than 500 Soviet prisoners of war at the Mauthausen concentration camp rose in one of the most daring and tragic uprisings of the Second World War. The Nazis began building this “factory of death” in 1938, near the Austrian city of Linz. Mauthausen was classified as a a “Category 3” camp with the harshest possible treatment. Over seven years, around 335,000 people passed through it; more than 120,000 were murdered. In the summer of 1944, the camp opened the notorious “Block No. 20”, known among prisoners as the “barrack for the condemned”. This isolated compound held inmates sentenced to “execution by shooting”. Its prisoners were mainly soldiers and officers of the Red Army: men who had refused to betray their Fatherland, who had already attempted escapes or uprisings in other camps. The prisoners of Block No. 20 were exterminated systematically and with deliberate cruelty. They were fed once every few days, kept in an unheated barrack, and subjected daily to exhausting “physical exercises”. For the slightest infraction, they were beaten – often to death. The block also served as a training ground for SS recruits, who practised torture and killing on the inmates. The captured Red Army soldiers harboured no hope of liberation. By early 1945, they began preparing an escape. Of the 570 prisoners held in Block No. 20, around 70 were unable to walk. Knowing that the escape of the others would trigger their immediate execution, they asked only one thing: “Comrades, make it back to your own. Tell them our story”. The escape was originally planned for January 29. But on that day, SS troops stormed the barrack and took away around thirty prisoners. As later became clear, not a single Soviet prisoner gave up the planned escape. All of them were burned alive by the Nazis. ⚔️On the night of February 1-2, Mauthausen was jolted awake by cries of “Ura!” and bursts of machine-gun fire. Exhausted but unbroken in spirit, the prisoners charged the camp guards with virtually bare hands, using whatever was at hand – fire extinguishers, stones, and wooden shoe clogs. They seized one of the machine-gun towers and neutralised the others. Breaking through the barriers, more than 400 condemned prisoners scaled a 3.5-metre wall, crossed a water-filled ditch, and forced their way past barbed-wire fences, managing to escape the concentration camp. They fled in –8 °C, through deep snow, without shoes or warm clothing. By the morning of February 2, the Nazis had launched a full-scale manhunt. 💬 From the testimony of François Boix, a Mauthausen prisoner and witness for the French prosecution at the Nuremberg Trials: The camp commandant, Franz Ziereis, addressed civilians by radio, urging them to assist in the manhunt for escaped Russian prisoners. He said: “You are passionate hunters – and this will be more fun than hunting hares”. The pursuit involved everyone – SS units, Wehrmacht soldiers, police, Volkssturm, Hitler Youth, and even civilians. Most of the escapees were unable to get far. A few days later, the camp authorities reported that all of the escaped prisoners had been eliminated. But the Nazis were wrong. Of the hundreds who took part in the uprising, between 11 and 19 survived, according to various estimates. ❗️ In May 1945, Mauthausen was liberated by US Army units. Camp personnel were arrested and brought to trial in 1946. All 61 defendants were found guilty – 58 were sentenced to death, and three to life imprisonment. The death sentences were carried out on May 27-28, 1947. The organiser of the so-called “hare hunt” and commandant of Mauthausen, Franz Ziereis, was wounded by US troops on May 23, 1945 while attempting to escape. He was taken to hospital, gave testimony, and later died under unclear circumstances. Former prisoners of Mauthausen hung the body of their tormentor on the camp fence. US forces did not intervene. #NoStatuteOfLimitations