We took a train from Vienna to a small village of St. Valentin, in the district of Amstetten in Lower Austria. We had lunch in a beautiful little beergarten of a hotel near the railwaystation, and took a taxi from there to Mauthausen. The distance being too long for a stroll.
The weather was hot (for us Finns, especially): +32 C, in sunshine almost unbearable. Mr HP and I kept giving Miss Funnybunny water, but we did not complain. For the prisoners it was unbearable constantly.
The camp is on the hill in the middle of a beautiful landscape and Autsian villages. Only 20 km from Linz, and near Vienna as well. The Donau valley begins from around here.
In these barracks there are now museums and exhibitions.
"Steinbruch and Todestiege". The rocks used by Speer for the Congress Hall in Nuremberg (Nürnberg) came from here. (See IStori post of Oct 2007.)
Between the memorial monument and the farmhouse in distance there lies the quarry, and behind it, the river Donau is flowing towards Vienna. The "Todestige", "Steps Of Death" lied up from the quarry. Many prisoners died on the steps carrying the rocks.
These look scary, don't they? But people have right to live next to a concentration camp.
Linz. Hitler's favourite town. Very industrialised nowadays. In the middle of it there was a spectacular cathedral, and we heard there is an Old Town, too, but we did not have time to visit it.
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