The catalogue The Mauthausen Concentration Camp 1938-1945 presents the new overview exhibition
at the Mauthausen Memorial that opened in May 2013. The exhibition offers a compact account of
the complete history of the Mauthausen concentration camp.The Mauthausen concentration camp was
established in August 1938 for the persecution of opponents of the National Socialist regime in
the 'Ostmark'. Following the outbreak of war people from all over Europe were deported to
Mauthausen. With a branch camp in Gusen and a network of over 40 subcamps it was an important
part of the overall system of National Socialist concentration camps until the liberation on 5
May 1945.The documentation focuses on the portrayal of the prisoners the perpetrators and the
regional and economic contexts. Over 100 original objects countless photographs and documents
eyewitness interviews and animated visualisations tell the history of prisoner forced labour in
SS-owned quarries and the arms industry of ideologically motivated killing actions and of the
expansion and collapse of the Mauthausen camp complex.The different aspects of the camp's
history are placed in the context of the history of National Socialist terror as a whole as
well as in relation to post-war history. At the same time particular consideration is given to
the experiences of former concentration camp prisoners.
