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Cut and uncut granite stones from a quarry at the Mauthausen concentration camp

Object | Accession Number: 1991.134.1

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    Overview

    Brief Narrative
    Granite blocks quarried from the site of Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria in the ‘Anschluss’, and in April established the Deutsche Erd- und Steinwerke (GmbH-DESt, German Earth and Stone Works Inc.) to exploit the labor of concentration camp prisoners. In August, a concentration camp was established three miles from the town of Mauthausen, near the Wiener Graben stone quarry. Built by prisoners detailed from Dachau concentration camp in Germany, it originally functioned as a forced-labor camp, and later became a transfer point to subcamps and a site for mass killings. The Granitwerke Mauthausen (Mauthausen Granite Works) soon became the largest and most productive site of the German firm. Most of Mauthausen’s prisoners who were not killed or infirm immediately upon arrival worked in the stone quarry, which was only accessible by walking down 186 steps, known as the “Stairs of Death.” Prisoners under SS control were subject to “extermination through work,” and many died or were killed in the quarry as a result. Under harsh treatment from the guard of SS and Kapos, prisoners in the ‘Strafkompanie’ (the penal company) had to carry large, heavy blocks of stone up the steps to the top by hand. During the summer, prisoners worked 11 hours a day, and in the winter, 9 hours a day, and had inadequate food, clothing, and sanitary conditions. The SS abandoned the camp on May 3, 1945 and US troops arrived on May 5. After liberation, the US Army collected documentary and photographic evidence in preparation for war crimes trials, which camp prisoners had saved and smuggled out of the camp, despite immense risk to their own lives.
    Date
    manufacture:  after 1938 April-before 1945 May 05
    Geography
    manufacture: Mauthausen (Concentration Camp); Mauthausen (Austria)
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Mauthausen Memorial Museum

    Physical Details

    Classification
    Materials
    Object Type
    Granite (lcsh)
    Genre/Form
    Stone quarrying.
    Physical Description
    A combination of approximately 50 large, rectangular, granite slabs and 140 smaller cut granite cubes. The stones and cubes are all roughly the same light brown color with naturally varying flecks of black, white, tan, and gray mica . The cubes have been partially dressed and have both smooth sides and rough sides. The rough sides are distinguished by a more pitted appearance. The slabs are more roughly cut than the cubes.
    Dimensions
    overall: Height: 25.000 inches (63.5 cm) | Width: 255.000 inches (647.7 cm) | Depth: 57.000 inches (144.78 cm)
    Materials
    overall : granite

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    No restrictions on access
    Conditions on Use
    No restrictions on use

    Keywords & Subjects

    Geographic Name
    Mauthausen (Austria)

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    The granite stones were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1991 by Gedenkstätte Konzentrationslager Mauthausen, or the Mauthausen Memorial Museum.
    Record last modified:
    2023-06-14 07:09:16
    This page:
    http:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn4378

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