Mauthausen to Gusen/Gunskirchen/Ebensee/Steyr

Members of the Boys were held in Nazi labour and concentration camps and used as slave labourers.

From 1933-1945 Nazi Germany operated over 1,000 concentration camps and subcamps in its own territory and across German occupied Europe. Among them was the Mauthausen concentration camp.

As the camps were dissolved thousands of people, among them members of the Boys, endured horrific evacuations from the camps on foot, in freight wagons and open top trains, as well as perilous journeys across the Baltic Sea. 

The Boys were teenage and child-Holocaust survivors, who were brought to the UK after the war for rest and rehabilitation.

^{Mathausen Memorial, Austria.}

Overview

From January 1945, Mauthausen became a reception centre for tens of thousands of slave labourers evacuated from other camps further to the east. The camp was completely over run and there were acute food shortages. A makeshift tent camp was erected to house them. Prisoners arriving at Mauthausen were sometimes refused and forced to travel to other concentration camps hundreds of kilometres away others were directed to the Gunskirchen holding camp.

Death Marches

In March 1945, the subcamps east of the main Mauthausen camp were abandoned and prisoners transported by boat, foot, or train to the main camp or the subcamps of Gusen, Ebensee and Steyr. Some prisoners were forced to build fortifications along the border with Hungary. During these death marches virtually no food or water was given to the prisoners and those who could not keep up were shot.

The majority of the death marches headed for the temporary holding camp at Gunskirchen