Concentration Camps in Linz

Bertrand Perz

By the middle of 1944, three external camps of the Mauthausen concentration camp had been erected in the city of Linz.

The first camp, in which up to 1,000 male prisoners were held, was constructed at the end of 1942 in order to utilise the slag from the blast furnace from the „Hermann Göring“ Reich Works. The profits from the utilisation of the slag was shared by the Reich Works and the SS.

In the spring of 1944, at the behest of Hitler himself, the SS provided prisoners as labourers to extend the air raid shelters at the Märzenkeller. The approximately 380 male prisoners of this camp, which was named Linz II and was run by the SS, were housed right in the shelters themselves.

Not long afterwards the Reich Works succeeded in getting further concentration camp prisoners as workers for the extension of the shed and for tank production at the subsidiary firm „Eisenwerke Donau“ (Danube Iron Works). By the fall of 1944 the specially erected camp „Linz III“ housed over 5,600 male prisoners.
In total 800 prisoners lost their lives in the three camps.