The Memorial Gusen

The Gusen concentration camp was a branch camp of the Mauthausen concentration camp. It was built from December 1939 onwards. The first prisoners were officially registered there in May 1940. Until its liberation in May 1945, 71,000 prisoners from almost 30 nations were imprisoned in Gusen. More than half of them did not survive their detention.

After the liberation, the camp was soon extensively demolished. In the 1960s, international survivors’ organisations erected a memorial around the surviving crematorium furnace at their own expense. The “Memorial de Gusen” was inaugurated in 1965. Today, there are only a few physical remnants of the camp, and large parts of the former camp grounds have been developed with a housing estate.

The Republic of Austria has been responsible for the Gusen concentration camp memorial site since 1997. It is a former crime scene, a memorial site and a place for political-historical education.

The Gusen concentration camp memorial is part of the Mauthausen Memorial. Its aim is to embed the history of the Gusen concentration camp, the memory of its victims and the responsibility of the perpetrators and bystanders in public awareness. It is also designed to help promote public discussion of history in light of its significance for the present and the future.