Everyday Life and Survival at Mauthausen during the Final Stages of War: The Hungarian Jews

Abstract

Since summer 1944, because of its western location – in significant distance to the front – Mauthausen, including its subcamps, became one of the main destinations for deportation and evacuation transports. As a result, the number of prisoners in the Mauthausen concentration camp complex grew significantly, and the living conditions in the camp deteriorated substantially. Thus, prisoners who reached Mauthausen during this late period of the war often found considerably worse living conditions than prisoners who arrived earlier. Using the example of the Jewish prisoners from Hungary the paper analyses the last period of Mauthausen, describes the daily life especially in the tent camp, in Gunskirchen and in the subcamps of Mauthausen, and discusses how the changed living conditions effected the chances for survival. Based on narrative interviews and protocols that were recorded immediately after the war the paper questions the image of a homogenous camp history and points to the plurality of camp experiences during the last months of the war.