SS administration barracks

SS administration barrack, presumably spring 1943 (photo credits: SS-photo, Courtesy of Museu d’Història de Catalunya, Barcelona: Fons Amical de Mauthausen)These two barracks, which were presumably built in 1942 and still exist today, were part of an SS unit accommodation and administration complex of buildings. The so-called ‘SS-Unterführerheim’, an officers' mess and popular social meeting place for SS members was located between these two barracks.

The inside of the camp was strictly separated from the area outside the camp walls, which is where the SS lived. As a rule, the SS only entered the detention camp in exceptional cases. The two directly adjoining areas, which were separated by the camp wall, represented two radically different worlds, between which any social contact was to be avoided.

SS administration barrack, presumably spring 1943 (photo credits: SS-photo, Courtesy of Museu d’Història de Catalunya, Barcelona: Fons Amical de Mauthausen)