Mauthausen Memorial

Was hesitant to visit due to the history, but so glad I decided to. They have done a wonderful job paying homage to the lives of the people lost. Very educational experiance.

We had an amazing visit to Mauthausen, all is very well conserved and very impactful. The entry is free, and for 5€ you can have an audioguide (without headset, but you can bring yours), but you can also have it online for free. I recommend going at first hour to be alone (which impress even more), because after it starts getting crowded.

Very sombre experience, hard to imagine how one human can be so terribly cruel to another. Sad that the prisoner thought it was easier to take their own lives by jumping onto rocks in the quarry, below the camp. Eerie feeling about the place, but so many stories to hear.

Everybody needs to visit these concentration camps. Visited while cycle touring the Danube

One of the most harrowing experiences of my life - coming face to face with the total rupture of humanity and watching the world explode with the same hate again was almost too much to handle. But the survivors and their families, and their optimism, brings hope!

An amazing experience. The museum and displays are tastefully done and tell the story. The audio guide was very well done and informative. Our kids were engaged and interested in the history. Recommend not taking small children as the topics are obviously heavy.

Very educational and a must visit to learn about the Holocaust victims and history of it. I grew up nearby so seen it during school time already, but the museum and all description have been enhanced by a lot. Also for english speakers no problem as all is also described in English and there is an app with audio guides as well in multiple languages, so everyone can visit and learn about this dark time of the history.

Was here for the 80th anniversary commemoration for the liberation of the camp, and on a separate occasion, I visited the museum and grounds. The museum is well put together and the exhibits are informative and comprehensive. I was here for several hours but I felt like it wasn't enough to truly absorb everything. The camp is located near a town by the same name, and it always makes me unsettled when I think about how many people lived in such close proximity to the camp during the war, and just kept on with their lives, ignoring the atrocities being committed just a few kilometers away. The town still exists today and is populated. I can't imagine living anywhere near this place, especially given that most of the Mauthausen inhabitants are probably descendants of Nazis.

A bittersweet and yet must visit. Do not allow the regret of experience the evil of hatred in full operation keep you away. The purpose of the visit is to remember and to never forget. To forever see these people in memorial, that were systematically victimized and murdered by the hands of a nation.

Mauthausen may be difficult to visit unless you have a car or are on a bus tour, but the preservation of this site and its conversion into a museum, sculpture garden, memorial, and educational institute is world-class. Compared to Dachau, which was mostly an empty gravel field with some barracks still in place, Mauthausen is an entire fortress on a hill with a world-class museum, expansive sculpture garden, and even a food court! Preservation here is incredible. The beautiful town of Mauthausen could have demolished the whole site, but instead chose to preserve every detail despite it being a depressing eyesore that glowers atop the town's focal point. Instead of just one or two barracks still in place like Dachau, the entire fortress compound has been preserved. Every living quarter is still erect and so are the gas chambers. Integrated within the compound is a sculpture garden, museum, and memorial to those killed at the KZ. It's an emotional, powerful place to visit that I fear many visitors will pass up because it isn't uplifting, fun, or Instagram-worthy. But every person on earth should be required to visit at least one of the Nazi NZs to have that visceral understanding of what the Holocaust was and how to learn from history's biggest mistakes. Too many people today didn't live through that period in history or were directly affected by it, and thus blatantly brandish Nazi symbolism without knowing exactly what it implies.

I actually have been debating back and forth on whether reviewing a concentration camp is appropriate or not. In the end I decided to go ahead write the review. This concentration camp, located in Austria east of Linz above the town of Mauthausen, is not as well known as Auschwitz and Dachau which were the main extermination camps that everyone knows but it still has a dark history as it was one of the main labor camps where prisoners were sent to be worked continuously Prior to arriving we watched a documentary on Mauthausen on the tour bus to prepare us for what was to come When we arrived at the camp on top of the hill, the eerie quietness of it all just hits you when you walk around. I swear that when I closed my eyes I could sense the fear and terror prisoners felt when they stepped off the trains to the camp. As the camp was closed because of the holidays we ended up walking around the exterior of it which is just as impactful as being inside. While walking we passed on a patch of ground at the bottom of the hill that caught my attention. I found out that that patch is a mass grave where hundreds of Soviet prisoners were executed and buried. In addition I was able to see the infamous "Stairway of Death" which is a steep stairway from a quarry at the bottom to the top (around 164 steps). Prisoners were forced to carry up to 50 lbs of granite to the top. There were many instances where someone fell backwards or dropped their loads which would cause a chain reaction of people and granite falling backwards into the people behind killing or injuring then. If that was horrible enough, in some instances, the guards would force the prisoners to race up to the top. If they made it, they would then be lined up by the edge, called the "Parachutists Wall" and given the option of either being shot or jump off, hence the name. In addition, all around the exterior there are memorials from every country that had prisoners interned there. Even though the one dedicated to France was the biggest (most of the interned were from there), the ones dedicated to Italy and Spain were the most impactful because they actually listed names and photos of victims from those countries. That more than anything hit me hard because these were young people who had not yet experienced a full life and would never do.. I have to been to the Holocaust Memorials in Miami Beach and in Washington DC but visiting an actual camp is a totally different experience...

It feels wrong to give a concentration camp 5 stars, but this place moved me to my core. It's important to travel with people who understand the value of visiting historic sites like this. At the rental car office, the employee helping us didn't understand why we would want to visit such a sad place. She clearly wasn't proud of this place and didn't like the idea of tourists going there. She told us students visit it as part of their school curriculum. As a grandchild of Armenian Genocide survivors, it touched me to see how this country (unlike Turkey) acknowledges this dark part of their past instead of denying it. It's so important to teach new generations this stuff to ensure history never repeats itself. The silence at Mauthausen hangs heavily. The air is heavy too with the weight of the atrocious things that happened here. Walking around learning about the living conditions and what life was like for the people who were brought here during WWII with the self guided audio tour was very sad. Although we learn about the Holocaust in school we don't learn nearly enough...I felt myself almost losing it when I saw the rooms where they conducted medical experiments and when I walked through the crematorium and saw the ovens. How can humans do such atrocious things to each other? The scariest part was that these people didn't see anything wrong with what they were doing. They took roll daily and kept meticulous records. The exhibits in the museum are chilling. My initial reaction to this place was wishing it didn't exist. I wished the place would have been razed to erase every memory...but that would be wrong. Places like this need to remain to remind us what humans are capable of doing to each other in the absence of tolerance.

I went there with my school class for a guided tour and I have to say it was really really good! I actually have been there before but I didn't like it that much so I kinda expected this to be the same boring stuff again. Our guide, Bernhard, kept me interested for 3.5 hours which itself is almost a miracle. First of all we discussed some pictures from back then in groups of 3, and then he walked us through the area where every group had to tell the others what they discussed when we arrived at a place their picture would fit to. This not only made it more amusing for us students but it also gave us more of an insight in the people's lifes back in the day. All in all, great experience and props to our guide, Bernhard!

Our visit to the memorial was a splendid one though it was extremely cold for a spring time visit, and rainy, but it did bring out the dramatic effect as well. The Mauthausen memorial is truly a jewel historically speaking and how parts of it have been preserved or reconstructed alongside those parts that have been left with marks of the past make for a truly compelling lesson, one that we should never forget nor repeat. Like all other WWII tributes and museums, it speaks of the horrific conditions of POWs and the tragedies done to the Jewish population, however unlike other places, it keeps intact pieces of history exactly as how they were and allow you to imagine the appalling conditions as can be seen in the prints left behind in the showers and toilets.

Somber yet important historical site. Many original buildings are no longer there, but what is present is still a grim reminder of this historical travesty. The international memorial statues beyond the main gate are a good way to end the self-guided tour. Take a walk down and back up the "Stairs of Death." It is a humbling experience.