After the Nazi's took control of Austria. Prisoners from the concentration camp Dachau were moved to Linz, Austria on August 8, 1938, which is the site of Mauthausen.  This camp consisted of about 195, 000 men, women, and children. Wiener Graben, which was a quarry in Linz, was why the Nazi's moved all of these prisoners to this little town.  They wanted the prisoners to do slave labor.  This camp was classified as a category three camp (the worst category); this meant death for the prisoners.  Himmler was the man in charge of the camp and he ordered 45-kilo stones on the prisoner's backs.  He made they run around with the stones and have contests. 

Life at Mauthausen was terrible.  The day began at 4:45 in the morning and ended at 7:00 pm.  Everyday to make sure people were showing up the guards would take roll call and distribute food to the prisoners.  People would fight for food because it was hard to survive with the rations given.  At Wiener Graben they were forced to build a monument to Adolf Hitler, which was why they had to carry the granite stones on their backs.  Hitler's dream was for Linz to be a City of Art because he had once had a vision to be an artist himself.  "These two with pick handles in hand flailed into this pathetic group who were digging in the mountainside.  By eleven-thirty, 47 of the 87 lay dead on the ground. They were butchered, one after another, before the eyes of fellow prisoners" recalls a prisoners that was in the quarries.

            Killing Techniques at Mauthausen were terrible as in any other concentration camp.  In the winter the guards would spray prisoners with water and no clothes on.  They would leave them outside to see how long it took them to freeze to death.  The stairs of death were also dreadful.  Prisoners had to race up the stairs with granite blocks on their backs as a source of entertainment for the guards.  If the prisoners fell of tripped they were beaten or forced to jump off the quarries.  Actually in the quarries guards would beat prisoners and they would force people to fight and then throw rocks at them while doing so.  The Gas Chamber was another gruesome way they killed people.

            Frank Ziereis was the commander of Mauthausen.  He recalls what the chambers were like,  "Dr. Krebsbach a gas chamber was built in the form of a bathroom...inmates were gassed in it.  In Mauthausen all gassed inmates were reported as having died of natural causes."  Ziereis also confesses of many other ways these helpless people died.  He said "...on inmates regardless weather they were ill or healthy extirpated a piece of the brain and thus caused their death.  This happened to about 1000 inmates."  Dr. Richter and Dr. Kiesewetter were the two main doctors at the camp.  They did many awful things such as benzine injections and extracting pieces of people's brains.  Still these commanders had more ways to kill a human being.

            The commanders would send the sick prisoners into the woods.  They would try to stay alive by eating grass and bark, but eventually they would starve to death.  Prisoners who would help with the killings were later killed because they knew too much about what the head people were doing.  The Nurses that worked in the "hospitals" would also be put to death.  These people didn't do anything wrong.  Neither did the people who got torn up by a big dog named Lord.