Mauthausen

Mauthausen, AT

A category III concentration camp in Austria — the most severe classification, reserved for "incorrigible political enemies" — where approximately 95,000 of the 190,000 prisoners perished between 1938 and 1945. Built around the **Wiener Graben** granite quarry, prisoners were forced to carry heavy stones up 186 steps carved into the quarry wall — known as the **Staircase of Death**. Liberated by the American **11th Armored Division** on May 5, 1945.