Visiting Mauthausen Gusen, the Spanish camp

The camps of Mauthausen and Gusen belonged to a network of concentration camps expanded throughout Austria and southern Germany. It is believed that the number of victims of these camps could reach 300,000. The camp work was based on a granite quarry where prisoners came to die working. Besides the camp had numerous methods of extermination, as gas chambers or cold showers.

 The camp network that  belonged to Mauthausen .

Mauthausen is known as the Spanish camp due to the large number of Republican exiles who were deported there. They came mostly from Vichy France and many of them were captured when they joined the French Resistance. Franco's government disowned them as Spanish and they were transferred to Mauthausen wearing the blue triangle of stateless people.

 Liberation of the camp in 1945.

The Mauthausen and Gusen camps are son close so you can visit both of them in the same day.

VISIT MAUTHAUSEN

Location: here.

Official Website: http://www.mauthausen-memorial.at

Hours: 9:00 to 17:30 (last admission 16:45)

Closed 24 to 26 December, 31 December, 1 January

Normal ticket: € 2

Audioguides German / English: 40 euro deposit

Tours German / English: Saturdays, Sundays and holidays at 14:00 (1 euro / person)

Getting to Mauthausen?

• The field is located in Austria, between Vienna and Salzburg and it's 20 km away from Linz. If we go by car from Vienna or Salzburg we will have to take the A1 and exit at Enns. Always follow the signs for KZ-Gedenkstätte .

• To arrive by public transport is not very well connected. You have to take a train to the town of Mauthausen. Once at the station Mauthasen can either take a taxi to the field (4 km separate it from the station) or take the bus 360 (departs from the station every hour) stop at Linzer Straße / Wasserwerk and then walk 2 km to the entrance. You can click here to see what the whole journey on foot from the station to the field.

Check train times and routes: http://www.bahn.com/i/view/ESP/es/index.shtml
Consult bus timetables: www.ooevv.at/index.php?id=1377

Entrance ( photo: Lucignolobrescia )
 

Because of its structure, the field has remained quite well since its release in 1945. It has been changed due to its conversion into a memorial. In the 60's a cemetery was buit inside where the remains of the victims were buried. The visit provides access to all its facilities, including the old quarry, the gas chambers and crematoria. The website offers a small virtual tour explaining every point in the plane.

From March 12 to May 5, 2013 both the gas chambers and the crematoria will be closed due to reforms. On May 6, 2013 they will open two new historical exhibits and a new memorial, " The Hall of Names ".

Gas chamber ( photo: Lucignolobrescia )

Crematorium.

The stairs of death at Mauthausen. Prisioners had to go up this staircase of 186 more than ten times a day loaded with stone blocks. Many died exhausted.

right photo: Lucignolobrescia

VISITING GUSEN

Location: here. 

Official website: http://www.gusen-memorial.at/  

Opening hours:
From 1 April to 30 September: Tuesday to Friday from 9:00 to 17:30, Saturday and Sunday from 9: 30 to 17:30
From 1 October to 31 March: Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from 9:30 to 17:30
Closed: December 24 and January 6.  

Free admission .  

How to get Gusen? Indications are the same as those listed for Mauthausen but when yo take the bus 360 from the train station you will have to get off at b.Mauthausen Bachstraße Gusen stop, three stops more that the other one.

Photo: Rudolf A. Haunschmied

This camp is much less traveled by tourists than Mauthausen. In 2004 they opened an exhibition about the life in the camp, from 1939 to 1945.

In the map you can see the structure of the camp. The official website shows in detail what is in each point.

Prora: The Nazi Beach Resort

Prora was a residential complex built between 1936 and 1939 by the KdF (Strength through Joy). They wanted to build a holiday resort with a capacity for 20,000 people with theater, cinema and swimming pools intended that workers could spend their holidays on the beach. This building is an example of architecture of the Third Reich.

Photo: Dr. Schorsch

 

At the beginning of the war the project was stopped and later during the Allied bombing, some of its buildings were used as a refuge for Germans from Hamburg. At the end of the war it was used as a home to female auxiliary staff of the Luftwaffe. In 1945, the Soviet army took the region and they established a military base in block 5 of Prora. They remained until 1955.

Plano.

In recent years it has been empty and abandoned until it was sold to a group of investors. Since 2000, the center hosts the Prora documentation center, which currently has an exhibition about the history of the site and from July 2011 the northern part of the complex is home to a youth hostel.

Photo Gallery of indoors: 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/burtezz/sets/72157621465416746/

BUSINESS INFORMATION

Official Website: http://www.proradok.de

Opening hours:

March, April, May, September and October: 10:00-18 :00

June, July, August: 9:30-19:00
November, December, January, February: 10:00-16:00  

Admission to the museum : 6 euros

Guided tours (in German): 11:45 and 14:30

GETTING TO PRORA?

Location: here

Prora is on the island of Rugen , Northern Germany. It can be reached by car or train. There is a train that goes directly from Stralsund-Bergen station to Prora Nord station. From Berlin, changing at Stralsund you can get to Prora in four hours. 

To check trains and times: http://www.bahn.de/p/view/index.shtml

                                         

To move around the island by public transport you have to take the bus 20 or 23.

Check bus: http://www.rpnv.de/fahrplaninfo/fahrplan

ACCOMMODATION IN PRORA

From 23.50 euros/night it's possible to sleep in the old complex now become a youth hostel. You can book a room from its official website: 

http://prora.jugendherbergen-mv.de

Visit and spend the night in Colditz Castle (Germany)

Colditz Castle, a former mental hospital, was used under the control of the Wehrmacht during World War II as a POW camp for Allied officers of high rank. Its official designation was Oflag IVc .

It became a high security prison because some prisoners were known for their attempts to escape. It was said that there were more guards than prisoners. Still, there were several flights but mostly failed. The punishment for attempted escape was the isolation cell.

One of the more ambitious scape plans was conducted by the pilots Bill Goldfinch and Jack Best. With the help of several prisoners they built a glider from wood scraps and stolen sleeping bags. They wanted to launch from the roof of the chapel, which was hidden from the view of the Germans. The war ended before they could carry out the plan. There is a replica of the glider at the Imperial War Museum in London.

Many of these flights are reflected in the books of the British Captain Pat Reid, who after achieving escape and reach Switzerland, wrote his memoirs spread over several volumes.

GETTING TO COLDITZ?


View larger map

 

The castle is located in the town of Colditz in Saxony, eastern Germany, 50 km away from Leipzig, 75 km away fron Dresden and 230 km away from Berlin. You can fly easily to any of these cities and rent a car to get Colditz. To go by train you have to get to the station Großbothen (direct trains from Leipzig) and from there take a taxi or a bus to Colditz or get to the station Grimma and there take the bus #619 in the direction of Rochlitz (check here the schedule).

For trains and times: http://www.bahn.de/p/view/index.shtml

From Leipzig, there is also a shuttle bus that runs every hour. This bus is the #690 and you can take it in the Leipzig train station but it only runs Monday to Friday . On weekends you will have to combine train and bus.

ACCOMMODATION  IN THE CASTLE

If you want to spend a night in the castle beacuse of today it houses a youth hostel: the Colditz Youth Hostel (DHJ Jugendherberge Schloss Colditz). You can stay there from 22 euros. You will have to book in advance through the official website: http://www.colditz.jugendherberge.de clicking on " Inquiries & Buchen "on the right side of the screen. It will take you to a form where you have to indicate if you're going in a group, family, or individual, if you're more or less than 26 year old and the dates. If you want a single or a double room you should make a reservation well in advance.

Click here for a pdf with all the information about the hostel (in English).

VISIT COLDITZ

Official Website: http://www.schloss-colditz.com

Opening hours:

From April to October: 10:00-17:00 (guided tours at 10:30 / 13:00 / 15:00, and at this time there on extended tours POW camp at 10:30)

From November to March: 10:00-16:00 (guided tours at 11:00 / 14:30)

Closed from 24 to 26 December, 31 December and 1 January.

Admission to the escape museum: 4 euros

Guided tour: 8 euros

Extended Tour: 15 euros

Plano.

The last years, the castle has undergone numerous restorations aimed at tourism purposes. This issue has brought controversial because many people believe it should be preserved as it was then, even if it means deterioration. It also houses a museum and a hostel. The museum collects personal belongings of prisoners, documents, recreations of rooms ... You can visit the cells of prisoners, the different rooms and the escape tunnel to get an idea of ​​the life at the camp.

Tunnel ( photo: Wikimedia Commons )

If you want to see a video gallery of the rooms of the castle you can click here .

Sources:
http://www.virtualcolditz.com/aims.html

http://www.colditz-4c.com

http://www.colditzcastle.net 

 

Visiting Dachau, Germany

The Dachau camp is located 20 km north of Munich (Germany) and it has an easy acces for tourists. It was built in 1933  as a work camp and since 1941 it began to be used as an extermination camp. It mostly housed political prisoners and homosexuals. Among his most famous prisoners was the German carpenter Georg Elser, who attempted unsuccessfully against Hitler in 1939, placing an explosive device built by himself in the brewery Bürgerbräukeller. For 13 minutes he did not succeed and he was arrested and taken first to Sachsenhausen and later to Dachau where he was treated as "privileged prisoner" (it's believed to be because Hitler assumed he was a pawn in a larger conspiracy). In 1945, 20 days before the camp liberation, he was killed by direct order of Hitler.

It's estimated  that 41,000 people were killed in the camp as well as many others that did not survive the appalling conditions in which they were (in 1945 a typhus epidemic swept).

The camp was liberated on April 29, 1945 by the 20th Armored Division and 45th Infantry Division of the U.S. Seventh Army .

 Plaque commemorating the 20th Armored Division.

GETTING FROM MUNICH TO DACHAU

You can click here to see the exact location of the camp. To get there, you must take a train from Munich (line S-Bahn S2 Petershausen direction). These trains depart every 20 minutes and takes about 20 minutes to get to the station Bahnhof Dachau . You can take this train at any station of the S2 line: Ost, Isartor, Hbf, Marienplatz ... From Munich Hbf station (the main station) you can also catch a RE (regional express) that leads to the Dachau station in 10 minutes, but it happens less often than the S2.

To check schedules can click here .

Once you reach Dachau Hbf you have to go out the main entrance cross the street, in the square, you will see a post that indicates concentration camp memorial site . There, you will have to take the 724 or 726 bus which stops at the entrance to the camp (KZ-Gedenkstätte). If you show the train ticket you will not have to pay ticket.

If you want to walk from the station to the camp, be aware that there are more than 3 km (about 50 minutes). You can follow the signs to " KZ-Gedenkstätte ".

THE MEMORIAL FIELD