Cover Mauthausen
series "Biblioteca storica"
pp. 508, Rilegato, 978-88-15-12163-9
publication year 2008

GIUSEPPE MAYDA

Mauthausen

History of a Concentration Camp

At Mauthausen, a small Austrian village on the Danube just a few kilometres from Linz, in 1938, immediately after Germanys annexation of Austria, a concentration camp for opponents of the Nazi regime was established. The site was chosen in order to exploit, through the prisoners forced labour, vast granite deposits. From 8 August 1938 to 5 May 1945, over more than six years of operation, 200,000 deportees were sent to Mauthausen and its auxiliary camps; at least 120,000 60% of the total died there. Reading the history of this camp allows the reader to review the development of the terrible internment system built by the Nazis. A site of oppression, exploitation, and extermination, Mauthausen was a source of suffering for anti-Fascists, partisans, Jews, and prisoners of war rounded up throughout Europe. This book tells the entire story of Mauthausen: how and why it was built, who was detained there, how prisoners lived and died. It is a striking but matter-of-fact story, that offers readers a description of historical events that can never be too well-known.

Giuseppe Mayda is a journalist and historian.

1. Geografia del terrore
2. Un segreto di dominio pubblico
3. Un modello per le «fabbriche della morte»
4. Prime deportazioni dall'Europa invasa
5. Tutte le strade conducono a Mauthausen
6. Centottantasei gradini per l'Inferno
7. Da uno spioncino della camera a gas
8. La prova della fame
9. Quelle tombe italiane sul Danubio
10. Gli schiavi delle «bombe volanti»
11. L'annientamento dei detenuti ebrei
12. Le donne che sfidarono Hitler
13. Ultimi giorni, ultimi delitti
14. Il secolo di Mauthausen
Note
Ringraziamenti
Indice dei nomi