Memorial Book for the Dead of the Mauthausen Concentration Camp

Commentaries and Biographies

1 2 Amstetten Bachmanning Bretstein Dipoldsau Ebensee Eisenerz Memorial Book for the Enns Grein Dead of the Mauthausen Großraming Gunskirchen Concentration Camp Gusen Hinterbrühl Hirtenberg Klagenfurt Commentaries and Biographies Lannach Leibnitz Lenzing Linz Loibl Mauthausen Melk Mittersill Passau Peggau Redl-Zipf St. Aegyd St. Lambrecht St. Valentin Schloss Lind Schwechat Steyr Ternberg Vöcklabruck Wels Wien Wiener Neudorf Wiener Neustadt3 Financed by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for the Victims of National Socialism and the Future Fund of the Republic of Austria

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. he Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliograie; detailed bibliographic data is available online at http://dnbd-nb.de.

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Memorial Book for the Dead of the Mauthausen Concentration Camp and its Subcamps Volume 1: Commentaries and Biographies

Publisher: Association for Remembrance and Historical Research in Austrian Concentration Camp Memorials. Managing editor: Andreas Kranebitter

In cooperation with the Mauthausen Memorial (Director: Barbara Glück)

Editing and proofreading: Andreas Kranebitter, Ralf Lechner Translation into English: Joanna White Project oversight: Wilhelm Stadler Layout and graphic design: Peter Sachartschenko

Copyright © 2016 by new academic press A-1160 Vienna www.newacademicpress.at

ISBN 978-3-7003-1961-0 Printed by: Druckerei heiss GmbH, 9431 St. Stefan

Translation of the biographies: Translation from Croatian into German: Nedina Malinović Translation from Czech into German: Jana Starek Translation from Dutch into German: Veronika Zangl Translation from English into German: Andreas Kranebitter Translation from French into German: Andrea Peyrou, Waltraud Neuhauser, Renate Carrère Translation from German into English: Joanna White, Paul Richards Translation from Italian into German: Camilla Brunelli, Ralf Lechner Translation from Norwegian into German: Lykke Larsen / Merethe Aagaard Jensen Translation from Polish into German: Katharina Czachor Translation from Russian into German: Tatiana Szekely Translation from Serbian into German: Nedina Malinović Translation from Slovakian into German: Ines Koeltzsch Translation from Slovenian into English: Monika Kokalj Kočevar Translation from Spanish into German: Maria Hörtner

4 Contents

PART 1: COMMENTARIES

Edition

Andreas Kranebitter From Source Data to Life Story. The history of a project 17

Ralf Lechner Naming the Dead. Sources for the memorial book and compiling the names of those deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp 27

Maria Hörtner / Alexander Prenninger Scattered Sources – Reliable Sources? On the documentation of those deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp who were not registered and died after liberation 35

Florian Schwanninger Reconstructing the Names of Those who Died in ‘Aktion 14 f 13’ at the Hartheim Killing Facility – an example of cooperation between memorial museums 41

Background

Christian Dürr / Ralf Lechner Killing and Dying in the Mauthausen/Gusen Concentration Camp 50

Florian Freund / Andreas Kranebitter On the Quantitative Dimension of Mass Murder at the Mauthausen Concentration Camp and its Subcamps 56

Bertrand Perz Mass Dying and Mass Killing at Mauthausen Concentration Camp. Thoughts on a history from the prisoners’ perspective 68

Gregor Holzinger The Dead Accuse. Historical documents as evidence in postwar trials 75

5 Remembrance

Guy Dockendorf / Andreas Baumgartner Internationalism: From a concept to a principle. Remembrance in Mauthausen in an international context 84

Heidemarie Uhl Commemorating Mauthausen in Austria’s Collective Memory 90

Gerhard Botz The Dead and Death in Memory. From the ‘Mauthausen Survivors Documentation Project’ 95

Hildegard Schmid / Nikolai Dobrowolskij (photography) Art for a collective … The ‘International Memorial Park’ at the Mauthausen Memorial 102

Tal Adler The Aesthetics of Disarrangement, Neglect and Solidarity: Independent commemoration at the Mauthausen Memorial 110

Niko Wahl / Andreas Kranebitter The Room of Names. Concept and design 118

PART 2: BIOGRAPHIES

6 Foreword

With the opening of the Room of Names in 2013, the academic team at the Mauthausen Memorial illed a signiicant void. I had the privilege of witnessing an incredibly moving moment when the then Justice Minister of Israel, Tzipi Livni, who was accompanying her father-in-law Moshe Shpitzer, found the name of his father on one of the glass panels: a gap in the family’s history could now be closed and, following decades of uncertainty, clarity about the whereabouts of a loved one established. hanks to the memorial room and the memorial book on display there, which contains information on all the dead known by name in alphabetical order, such moments will continue to occur. he publication of this annotated version of the memorial book available in the Room of Names marks, in my eyes, a milestone for the memorial museum in particular and for our society in general. Collected over several years, the biographical sketches of over 300 people who died represent the endeavour to foster individual commemoration of the dead and therefore to make this possible for generations to come.

Even 70 years ater the crimes that were committed in our country, we bear the unconditional responsibility for engaging individually with each victim of National Socialism. hanks to the many people who have supplied the Archive of the Mauthausen Memorial since 2014 with over 1,800 biographies (including survivors, survivor associations, academics, writers, relatives and staf at other memorial museums); their stories can now be told and the memory keep alive of them and their lives. I would like to think that the memorial book is important not only to the relatives of those who died, but stands for each and every one of us a warning against Fascism and National Socialism.

I would like to thank all those who were involved in the publication of the Memorial Book. he dedication, efort and persistence which went into this unique and remarkable work deserve our highest recognition.

Johanna Mikl-Leitner Federal Minister of the Interior

7 Foreword

For Austria, Mauthausen is the was the most immediate form of central memorial site in regard to the memory, in which the original, period of National Socialism – an authentic experience of pain alone was unparalleled symbol for the murder strong enough to keep alight the lame of many thousands of people, among of remembrance. them the politically persecuted, Today only a very few of the prisoners of war of diferent generation of the persecuted are still nationalities, and victims of National alive; every year in May, at the annual Socialist racist fanaticism: men, commemoration ceremonies to mark women, children. the liberation of the Mauthausen With the big symbols there is concentration camp, we see their always a danger of ossiication, number diminish. We today bear of getting stuck in a ritualised witness to the gradual disappearance commemoration which, with the of a community of memory… passing of time, loses ever more of its Even if we succeed in preserving original content and driving force, fragments of their memories in books which is worn away until in the end or ilms, these people will always only an outer shell remains, beret remain irreplaceable. of meaning. hankfully this does Other, new paths will be needed for not apply to Mauthausen: as a place remembrance in the future. of commemoration and learning, he National Fund of the Mauthausen today is part of a very Republic of Austria for Victims of active process of remembrance, National Socialism is as committed something clearly highlighted by the to preserving the memories of the research and memorial project, the survivors as it is to remembering the Memorial Book for the Dead of the dead. No less important is passing Mauthausen Concentration Camp and on experiences to subsequent its Subcamps, in all its facets. generations; learning from history. ‘he life of the dead is placed in the Both aims are realised with great memory of the living.’ (Marcus Tullius sensitivity in the Memorial Book Cicero (106–43 BCE)) for the Dead of the Mauthausen In the irst years and decades ater Concentration Camp and its Subcamps. the liberation of Mauthausen, memory he memorial book creates an carried all before it; by the survivors opportunity for commemoration and themselves, the witnesses whose remembrance and enables history to experiences in the camp remained be communicated in a form itting vivid throughout their lives. hey for today – the authenticity of the still remembered the persecution, the survivors is coupled with ways tortures and those who died – whose and means of making the National number is still unknown today – as Socialist past comprehensible and part of their own lived reality. his tangible for future generations.

8 Firstly, there is the wonderfully remembrance to another plane. he During the period of National and impressively designed annotated names of the dead are no longer just Socialism, the concentration camps edition of the memorial book – a present in the grounds of the former formed part of a network of terror itting memory to the over 81,000 concentration camp, are no longer – today this network of evil has a people known by name who died in legible only for those museum visitors positive counterpoint: a network of the Mauthausen concentration camp there in person, but can be viewed by remembrance and accounting for the and its subcamps. anyone, from anywhere in the world. past. It remembers the dead as the he names of the dead are therefore he Memorial Book for the Dead people they were: in their native transposed into a sphere which would of the Mauthausen Concentration language in a form they themselves have been unimaginable to them Camp and its Subcamps brings those and their relatives would have used. during their own lifetimes, and which murdered and their fates into our he focus of remembrance is on the allows them to be part of a larger, present day – into an era whose murdered individual alone, the single universal memory. freedoms and possibilities many back person who was deeply wronged – Just how ambitious and forward- then would have dreamed of. hey did independent of any categorisations looking this project is can also be not live to experience freedom and or evaluations foisted onto them by inferred from the many collaborations democracy. In remembering them we their Nazi tormentors. All this is on which it is based. he Memorial are reminded that the values for which insigniicant in the face of the life and Book for the Dead of the Mauthausen so many went to their death are not death that touches each person, as a Concentration Camp and its to be taken for granted but must be human, in a very private way. Here, Subcamps is the result of productive, safeguarded and constantly learned all are – in the best and most digniied transnational cooperation, of and defended anew. sense – equal in death. collaboration between historians, For this process of learning it is Alongside remembrance and victim organisations, survivors and vital, in remembering our shared commemoration, learning from their relatives, memorial museums history, to integrate its dark aspects history also lies at the heart of the and the embassies of the victims’ alongside the light as unifying project. he companion volume native countries, aided by countless elements in how our modern society provides the historical background archives and databases. Without understands itself. for the names and dates and conveys these productive synergies, neither Projects such as the Memorial information on the living conditions the Room of Names, which is used Book for the Dead of the Mauthausen in the concentration camp to a broad in Mauthausen today as a place of Concentration Camp and its Subcamps readership. Using biographies and remembrance, nor this memorial book therefore also mark a signiicant photos, the diferent fates acquire would have been possible in this form. contribution to the integration of faces and names. Out of their At the same time, there is a Europe, a continent which deines totality, out of the polyphony of guarantee for the future that the itself through its shared past and – so remembered voices, an idea of the process of remembrance is not we hope – learns from it. day-to-day reality in the Mauthausen inished but remains in progress. he concentration camp emerges. project will always be open for the Secondly, there is the electronic names and fates of those murdered Hannah M. Lessing memorial book, a ‘virtual’ Room who only become known to us in the National Fund of the Republic of of Names. It is a memorial site future – collaboration in the spirit of Austria for Victims of National beyond space and time and elevates shared remembrance will endure. Socialism.

9 Foreword

On 5 May 1945 – a few days before brutal of dictatorships was not able the end of the Second World to stamp out the wish for freedom, War in Europe and Austria’s inal human dignity, the rule of law, and liberation from the National Socialist democracy. Tens of thousands gave regime of terror – the Mauthausen their lives for this in the Mauthausen concentration camp was liberated concentration camp and its subcamps. by units of the US Army. Together he exhibitions and the catalogues are with its subcamps, Mauthausen was an attempt to do justice to the legacy the largest extermination camp on of these victims. Austrian soil; tens of thousands of One of the most important projects people died there and were subjected within this redesign is the ‘virtual’ to immeasurable sufering. Room of Names and the Memorial Today the former concentration Book for the Dead of the Mauthausen camp is the largest concentration concentration camp and its subcamps. camp memorial museum in Austria Painstaking research has meant that and large parts of it have been over 81,000 of those who died in the redesigned over recent years. his Mauthausen concentration camp and redesign also relects the changes its subcamps could be identiied by that have taken place in our society: name and recorded in the spelling from the suppression of history to a of their native language. Over 40 hesitant nod in its direction to active nationalities mourn their members engagement with the most painful and murdered in the Mauthausen camp uncomfortable truths of our history. complex. Why is Mauthausen so important? his project may have been Because it is a place of almost exceedingly challenging and indescribable sufering, a low point demanded of a great deal of in the history of a country robbed meticulous work, but it is a of its national freedom, a place of particularly important one. At stake remembrance, a place of warning is the inalienable human dignity and of learning. he exhibition at inherent to each and every person. the Mauthausen Memorial gives Every single person therefore has the survivors a voice, honours the his or her own name – and is not victims, and names the perpetrators. allowed to be simply a number in But it also shows that even the most an anonymous mass in collective

10 memory. With the memorial book and ranges from university research he threat to democracy and human the Room of Names, a signiicant step projects and scientiic publications rights seldom takes the same form and has been made towards the digniied to documentary ilms, oral history therefore anything that counteracts and lasting remembrance needed projects, exhibitions, commemorative fundamentalist, totalitarian, here, with selected biographies trips, ilms, pedagogical initiatives, anti-Semitic and xenophobic documenting in striking fashion the international conferences and tendencies, extremism, exclusion and diversity in the origins and fates of workshops, theatre performances, and radicalisation, and which promotes those murdered. smaller local civic initiatives such as democracy, human dignity, human Looking to the future, we need the erection of a memorial. rights, solidarity, tolerance and a robust memorial cultural in One important inding of a study dialogue is to be supported and order to sharpen awareness for the supported by the Future Fund – strengthened. indivisibility of human rights and the ‘Historical Consciousness of National We need steadfastness, vigilance, sanctity of human dignity. Socialism and Authoritarian Attitudes level-headedness and sensitivity. he careful and responsible in Austria’, published in 2014 – was Every year well over 180,000 approach to history and the already that a critical engagement with people, almost half of whom are diicult and, unfortunately, oten history, with National Socialism and school pupils, visit the Mauthausen unsuccessful endeavour to take from the Second World War, provides Memorial. he redesigned exhibitions, it lessons for the present and future, important guidance for understanding the catalogues and the memorial must keep urging us forward. the contemporary political challenges book therefore make a signiicant A modest contribution here is made facing a modern, globalised contribution to the consciousness- by the Future Fund of the Republic society and for protecting against raising that is needed. Supporting of Austria, founded in 2006. he authoritarian, nationalist, anti- them is a particularly important Future Fund has a legal mandate to Semitic and xenophobic temptations. project for the Future Fund. support projects – to quote verbatim Intensive political education across all Our thanks go, irst and foremost, – ‘which further the interests and ields and the promotion of a critical to Bertrand Perz, Barbara Glück commemoration of the victims of engagement with the history of and all the staf at the Mauthausen the National Socialist regime, the National Socialism, with cooperation Memorial. But above all, we owe remembrance of the threat posed by partners who can reach as many thanks to all those who visit it. totalitarian systems and tyranny, and sections of the population as possible, We are grateful for their interest international cooperation, and which are therefore the order of the day. and their thoughtful relection. foster respect for human rights and If, quite rightly, we invoke ‘never mutual tolerance in these areas.’ he again’ and ‘beware the beginnings’, Kurt Scholz spectrum of the 1,500 or so projects then this must amount to more than Herwig Hösele supported over the previous decade empty ritual; it must have purpose. Future Fund of the Republic of Austria

11 Preface

‘Nothing belongs to us any more; commemorated ‘their’ dead in a very they have taken away our clothes, our personal and very personalised way. shoes, even our hair; […] hey will hus along the walls of the former even take away our name: and if we crematorium, visitors are presented want to keep it, we will have to ind with a memorial room that has – one in ourselves the strength to do so, to might say – ‘evolved organically’ and manage somehow so that behind the which now has over 2,000 memorial name something of us, of us as we plaques to individuals or speciic were, still remains.’ groups. he Gusen Memorial has 500 (Primo Levi: If his is a Man) such plaques; the Melk Memorial 150. hese important but ‘haphazard’ he Mauthausen Memorial is at forms of commemoration formed once a place of political and historical the starting point for an adjunct that education and a cemetery – and was presented in 2013 along with therefore a place dedicated irst and the opening of two new permanent foremost to remembrance of the exhibitions and the Room of Names. victims. Over the last 70 years, the he dark glass panels bearing the oicial national memorials have been 81,000 known names from a total joined by other sites that allow speciic of 90,000 people killed in the forms of collective and individual Mauthausen concentration camp and remembrance. As was the case already its subcamps make it possible, for the during the creation and development irst time, to remember in collective of the memorial museum, it is thanks and individual ways all those known to the initiative of former prisoners by name who were killed in the that the dead have been remembered Mauthausen concentration camp and here since liberation. he need for its subcamps. independent commemoration of the And yet: looking at the names the dead was therefore, in some measure, question arises unforced as to who all something brought in to the memorial these people actually were. Silent and museum from outside. Until very static, all those whose names, dates of recently, memorial culture was rooted birth, and places and dates of death to a large extent in private initiatives we have been able to research present by relatives of the dead, by survivors themselves to us in a ‘sea of names’. and survivor organisations, who But their stories could not be told and

12 therefore never became part of our most important large-scale projects to raise up their voices, we feel collective memory. Once again it was undertaken by the Mauthausen connected in our desire to face manifest that remembrance of the Memorial. our history so that the dead do individual lives of the dead lay with Now others speak for the dead not fall victim to a renewed ‘death us. herefore we saw the time had and tell their life stories. Many of the by forgetting’. However, we ind come to begin a new phase dealing 300 biographies printed here were ourselves at the threshold to an with the biographies of the dead, in penned by relatives or acquaintances era in which it will no longer be order, ater 70 years, to put lesh, in of the dead who knew them personally possible for the survivors to recount the truest sense of the word, on the at and can sketch their path through their memories to us. Part of our once incomprehensible and abstract life before trace of them was lost in educational mission therefore is number of ‘90,000’. a concentration camp, before their to keep exploring new avenues for We are refused atonement for tracks were eradicated there. Many of supporting acts of remembrance. the crimes of National Socialism. the biographies were also written by Learning from history is only set in Yet we can put all our energies into survivors of the camp remembering motion when we succeed in creating reversing something that was part their dead comrades. We met with links to the experiences and lived of the National Socialist strategy great encouragement on the part of realities of our visitors. Part of this is of annihilation: the efacement of relatives, academics and survivor discussing the history of the former individual identity – the individual associations from across the world, concentration camp as the history of person. We must know who all whose tremendous willingness to individual people. May this help us to these people were in order to truly support us in all our objectives was succeed in carrying part of this legacy commemorate them. For this reason, overwhelming from the start. into the future, so that our children and drawing on the quote by Primo his allows us to hope that as are also given the opportunity to Levi, I argue that together we must further biographies are added to the engage critically with the question as ensure that something is known of ‘virtual’ Room of Names, which is to why so many people had to die. the victims of National Socialism being presented online in parallel to I would like to thank Andreas above and beyond their names. For this printed edition, gaps will continue Kranebitter and all the staf who have me, his words express that inner to be illed. Should our history be given so much to the realisation of this resistance that powerfully opposes the written without these people, it will project. peridious National Socialist attempt be incomplete. It will read like a book to obliterate human dignity: ‘I was from which pages are missing. With and I remain a man’. each individual biography, we seek For this reason, this edited to reinstate symbolically a page torn version of the memorial book, now from this book. Barbara Glück provisionally complete, is one of the To the witnesses, who sought Mauthausen Memorial

13 14 PART 1: COMMENTARIES Edition

15 First page of the ‘Lagerstandbuch Ebensee’ (‘Ebensee camp log book’), which was saved from destruction by prisoners including Camille Scholtes from Luxembourg (Archive of the Mauthausen Memorial, AMM B/5/35). It reads: v.

16 Andreas Kranebitter

From Source Data to Life Story. The history of a project

Introduction for himself and his dead comrades.1 come back from it the way you return he idea to publish a Memorial Book In the inal days of the war, the from a voyage that has transformed for the Dead of the Mauthausen SS had decreed that any document and – perhaps – transigured you. […] Concentration Camp and its Subcamps which could be used as evidence of Perhaps I have not simply survived arose as part of the redesign of its crimes be destroyed. From the death, but been resurrected from it.’5 the exhibitions at the Mauthausen outset, obfuscation, falsiication It was the survivors of the concentration camp, which opened and concealment had been an Mauthausen concentration camp to the public in May 2013. In reality integral part of its bureaucratic and and its subcamps who were able to however, work on this memorial book fastidious ‘total capture’2 of data rescue key documents and, in doing had begun already much earlier, in on concentration camp prisoners. so, secure evidence of Nazi crimes for 2006, when a team was formed to he attempted annihilation of these posterity. heir legacy, to remember analyse, interpret and collate the documents was, to take up Jean the dead of the concentration camp, is most important sources relating to Baudrillard and Harald Welzer, at the core of this memorial book. the names of those imprisoned in ‘part of the annihilation itself’.3 his the Mauthausen camp complex. In was something felt by many of the ‘Naming the victims’ – the aims and turn, this team built on projects of survivors both before and ater their stages of the project the late 1990s, when the Mauthausen liberation. ‘Forgetting and repression he central objective of this memorial Memorial started to computerise took root in me the moment the crime book is to compile as complete a list victim records. And inally, this was committed. No small part of the as possible of the names of those who project would not have been possible crime consisted in making us forget’4, died in the Mauthausen concentration without those sources saved from wrote the Mauthausen survivor Leon camp complex. his alone should destruction by concentration camp Zelman, decades later. By implication, give readers a sense of the scale prisoners themselves at great risk to therefore, the act of rescuing the of the mass murder committed in their own lives. documents shows if not an attempt this concentration camp, as well as he starting point for the idea for to prevent this annihilation to some making it possible to commemorate a memorial book for the countless extent, then at least a pressing need each individual person who died. In dead of the Mauthausen concentration to prove the crimes, to prevent their this way, the book seeks to couple camp was therefore the survivors’ being forgotten, to honour one’s dead individual memory to the visualisation wish to safeguard remembrance comrades. of the collective dimension of mass of the dead. ‘Console yourselves, Death was also something murder. dear loved ones! Your memory experienced by the survivors of the With this as its aim, the book forms will not be forgotten’, wrote the concentration camp. he writer Jorge a follow-up to the Room of Names, concentration camp survivor from Semprún, a survivor of Buchenwald which was created at the Mauthausen Luxembourg, Camille Scholtes, in a concentration camp, vividly described Memorial in May 2013. here visitors document known euphemistically as the invisible thread formed by this are given the possibility to remember a Lagerstandbuch or ‘camp log book’ experience of death that bound all the dead of the concentration camp from the Ebensee concentration the survivors and the dead of the in a single room. While the historical camp, which he and fellow prisoners concentration camp to one another: exhibitions and educational tours saved from destruction and which ‘[…] I have not escaped death, but primarily serve to provide historical he took back with him to his native passed through it. Rather: that it has information and promote open Luxembourg. Scholtes wrote these passed through me. hat I have, in dialogue with and between visitors, lines not with any reader in mind, but a way, lived through it. hat I have the Room of Names takes on a more

17 he French ilm director Claude Lanzmann was oten asked why his ‘faible’ for lists, numbers and names led him to follow such a sober narrative strategy. In one interview he answered: ‘It is crucial to know how many people were killed when and where. And only the time it takes to scroll all the names and facts across the screen can provide a physical sense of all the deaths.’7 he time needed even for a sweeping glance across the 81,007 names in the Room of Names might not result in a concrete image but can still convey some notion of the he Room of Names was opened in May 2013 as part of the irst phase of the historical signiicance of mass murder redesign of the Mauthausen Memorial (photo: Tal Adler). on this scale. he weight of the book on display in the room also literally speaks volumes: with 2,138 pages it is 23 centimetres thick and weighs over 20 kilograms. Of the nearly 20 printing houses approached, none wanted to take on the responsibility of binding a book this thick so for the Room of Names, practicalities dictate that the book be made up of loose pages bound with metal rings.8 he intention of this Memorial Book is also to emphasise, at irst glance, the collective dimension of mass murder committed at the many geographical locations connected to he Mauthausen survivor Ljubomir Zečević, president of the Association of Former the concentration camp complex. At Prisoners of the Mauthausen Concentration Camp in Serbia, at the opening of the the same time, the alphabetical listing Room of Names in May 2013 (photo: Stephan Matyus). of names ofers the chance to search for particular names and therefore contemplative function – it is there to display at three places throughout to remember each person behind the allow remembrance of those who died the room and, on the other, they names and numbers as an individual. in the concentration camp away from are printed in a random order on his book contains all the surnames historical information and away from to large glass panels. he random reconstructed to date from the various exhibits with their explanatory labels.6 ordering of the names on these glass historical sources of those who died his room contains the irst names panels seeks to avoid any hierarchy in the Mauthausen concentration and surnames of 81,007 people who of remembrance and, above all, to camp and its subcamps, together died. (For the current memorial book, visualise the diversity and number of with irst names, dates and places of 84,000 names could be identiied; this names; in other words, to make both birth and dates and places of death. is discussed in greater detail below.) the immense number of those who In its presentation, this naming of all hese are presented, on the one hand, died and the internationality of their those who died in the Mauthausen in alphabetical order in books on make-up comprehensible. concentration camp deliberately

18 he website of the Memorial Book for the Dead of the Mauthausen Concentration Camp and its Subcamps is an integral part of the project; it guarantees the possibility of adding to and expanding the project, which remains a work in progress (screenshot).

19 breaks with any form of categorisation was possible to arrange cooperation changing state of research as well as or subconscious hierarchy of victim agreements with the institutions in the possibility of integrating responses groups. In the Room of Names itself, question.13 from visitors – something expressly as well as in the memorial books Despite best eforts, existing gaps encouraged by the memorial museum available there and now in published in the documentation mean that – into the project. form, the victims appear with their projects such as this can never be he current memorial book lists the personal data and without any ‘inal’ or ‘complete’. At least 184,000 names and dates of 84,270 people who nationality or prisoner category given people were deported to Mauthausen were murdered in the Mauthausen to them by the SS. concentration camp between August concentration camp and its subcamps 1938 and June 1945; at least 90,000 or who died immediately ater Research, corrections and editorial of them were murdered in the liberation as a result of imprisonment. decisions in dealing with the data Mauthausen concentration camp or Extensive research since May 2013 he task of compiling the names of the died as a result of imprisonment.14 into Soviet prisoners of war and dead, which forms the foundation of heir exact number and all their people who died ater liberation in this book, built on projects initiated names will never be known – particular has made it possible to by the memorial museum almost two thousands of those deported died an identify a further 3,000 victims by decades ago. As early as 1996 work anonymous death. All trace is lost of name.16 began on digitalising key sources some victims of ‘Aktion 14f13’, which Since 2008, the corpus of data on and creating databases.9 In 2006 saw concentration camp prisoners which this project is based has been project staf were trained and data murdered at the Hartheim killing subject to various editorial decisions entry and source interpretation were facility; countless Soviet prisoners taken by the working group for the professionalised.10 In addition, the of war were killed by the SS in secret redesign of the Mauthausen Memorial. decision was taken that instead of ‘Aktionen’; in April and May 1945 hese decisions were presented to having one single database with one innumerable Hungarian Jewish partners of the memorial museum record for each person, a series of forced labourers were let to die in a on several occasions, including the databases would be generated, each of completely overcrowded ‘tent camp’ annual Dialogforen Mauthausen which would reproduce one historical at Mauthausen concentration camp, and the biannual International source as accurately as possible. In on death marches or in Gunskirchen. Forum Mauthausen zur Beratung a subsequent step, these databases he search for traces of their names der Bundesministerin für Inneres in would be linked using specially will continue for years, decades grundsätzlichen Angelegenheiten der developed sotware.11 even, and can never be ‘inal’.15 his KZ-Gedenkstätte Mauthausen (IFM– he sources that have gone into incompleteness means an open- International Forum Mauthausen creating the list were gathered from endedness to the project to which Advisory Board to the Federal a range of archives, interpreted we sought to allude already in the Minister of the Interior on Key and entered into the databases.12 ‘Room of Names’. Here, a black area Matters Relating to the Mauthausen Preparations for the new permanent on one of the glass panels, a symbolic Memorial). Likewise, this publication exhibitions and the Room of Names blank space, stands for the permanent project was opened up for discussion also made it possible to carry out state of incompleteness. It also meant at international conferences in Poland extensive research in several archives that for the current edition of the and Germany with representatives and institutions, including those in the Memorial Book for the Dead of the from international memorial museums USA, Israel, France, Germany, Spain, Mauthausen Concentration Camp whose own, similar projects provided the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and its Subcamps, an integral part a model for the publication of this Croatia, Serbia, Russia and Belarus. of the project was the creation of a memorial book.17 Much of this research brought to website (www.gedenkstaetten.at/ he most fundamental decision light hitherto unknown sources from raum-der-namen) where the names, regarding the names was that this the time the concentration camp dates and life stories of the dead can book should list all those who died in was in operation or from the period constantly be expanded, added to and the Mauthausen concentration camp ater liberation; in many cases, it corrected. his takes into account the complex between 8 August 1938 and

20 30 June 1945. For one this meant that Dead of the Mauthausen Concentration states to coordinate a joint approach not only would those who died in the Camp and its Subcamps and for and to discuss open questions. A main camp and the Gusen branch using a (hypothetical) spelling as of key outcome was the decision to camp be mentioned, but also all 1 January 1938, in order to reproduce reconstruct the spelling of names those who died in all the subcamps. the situation before the outbreak of according to the person’s individual However, this decision also meant that war and before the establishment of nationality within the union of states. those who died in other camps or on the Mauthausen concentration camp. In both cases this corresponds to a transport from another camp would In cases where the 1938 place name the historical situation in the year not be included in this list, a decision no longer corresponds to its current 1938 – in spite of Stalinist eforts in keeping with that taken by other name, both are given (e.g. ‘Fiume / at centralisation and in spite of the memorial museums. he restriction Rijeka’). he spelling of places of birth ‘Great Terror’, the languages of the to those who died before 30 June 1945 was ‘strictly’ corrected whereas names constituent republics were fostered can be accounted for by the departure were only changed in cases of obvious over long periods. While Russian of the US Army Evacuation Hospitals Germanisation or phonetic error, or became a compulsory subject in all from Mauthausen and Gusen at the where a personal document could schools in the union in 1938, ‘the end of June 1945. For the period ater verify an alternative spelling. For the rule that the language of the titular June 1945, it is no longer possible rest, the names were simply rewritten nation of the republic was to serve to determine who died as a result of using the correct special characters as the teaching language remained their imprisonment in a concentration where necessary or, in the case of until 1958.’20 For victims categorised camp.18 Regarding dates of death, Soviet, Serbian, Greek or Bulgarian as Yugoslavian, assistance was sought it should be noted that, in some dead, the name was given in the from the embassies of the successor circumstances for some individual relevant alphabet alongside the Latin. states and the Hrvatski institut zu cases, the ‘oicial’ registration of the he corrections to names and povijest21 in Zagreb, as well as from death with a later date means that places described here was only the Slovenian and Serbian branches the date given might difer from the made possible through numerous of the Comité International de actual date of death by days or – in cooperation projects. he embassies Mauthausen, to try to bring how the the case of deportees murdered at the of the diferent countries, numerous names of the dead were written into Hartheim killing facility19 – by weeks academic institutions and individual line with the spelling used in their or even months. researchers and, in particular, the countries of origin. In many cases Furthermore, for the publication national branches of the Comité this was not possible since certain of the names the decision was International de Mauthausen (CIM) place names were ambiguous and taken to attempt to reconstruct the all helped in the reconstruction of consequently could be located in any ‘original’ spelling of the names and the original spellings. In addition, one of several successor states. In places of birth of the deceased. For native speaker experts from the these cases a Latin spelling was agreed the most part, the entries in the former prisoners’ countries of origin upon, which should in no way be surviving sources are Germanisations, carried out a inal proofread. Oten, read as a statement about the person’s deliberate distortions, especially in for example in the case of Czech and membership of a particular ethnic the case of eastern European names Slovakian victims, personal data was group. – it is our belief that any attempt veriied using national databases of to name the dead in a digniied items such as historical residency On the structure of this volume manner should not reproduce this registration documents. In a large Germanisation. Any reconstruction of number of cases, it was possible to ind The academic companion volume the identities lying behind the names hitherto unknown archive material on hrough academic articles, this begins, it follows, with those very individual victims. companion volume provides the names. For this reason, the decision As regards the former Soviet Union rationale for the publication and was taken against using a ‘source and the former Yugoslavia, workshops places it in the context of research accurate’ spelling of names and places were held in June and July 2012 with on the Mauthausen concentration of birth in the Memorial Book for the the embassies of their successor camp and the commemoration of

21 its victims. he articles presented He also focuses on the question of the Mauthausen concentration camp here have an overview character what prisoners could have known complex and prompt individual and aim to introduce readers of this about it and how they could react to remembrance of each and every memorial book to particular aspects planned and intended killings. No one of the deceased. But in and of of killing and dying in the Mauthausen small proportion of these murders themselves, the names do not yet concentration camp complex, as were painstakingly documented tell any stories. ‘he only concrete well as providing an overview of the by the SS – some of the surviving history that can be retrieved’, writes extensive research literature in a documents were used, as Gregor historian Saul Friedländer, ‘remains concise and succinct manner. Holzinger reconstructs, as key pieces that carried by personal stories. From he section entitled Edition is of evidence in postwar trials. the stage of collective disintegration introduced through this article In the section entitled to that of deportation and death, this on the history of the project. Ralf Remembrance, Heidemarie Uhl history, in order to be written at all, Lechner then explores the history sketches the various phases of has to be represented as the integrated and function of the most important cultural memory in Austria since narration of individual fates.’22 sources upon which the list of names 1945 and the position occupied Only with biographical narratives in this memorial book is based. Maria by Mauthausen in Austrian does it become clear that behind Hörtner and Alexander Prenninger remembrance; Guy Dockendorf and the 90,000 numbers and names are discuss the diicult situation Andreas Baumgartner illuminate 90,000 individual life stories. With regarding sources relating to the the international situation through the collection of biographies of the period immediately before and ater a history of the Comité International countless dead found both in this the liberation of the camp, and the de Mauthausen. Gerhard Botz volume and on the project website, challenges this presented for the discusses memories of the dead as we are pursuing the aim of wresting publication. Florian Schwanninger narrated by survivors in interviews remembrance of the dead from any presents the cooperation project as part of the ‘Mauthausen Survivors form of anonymity. For example, between the Mauthausen Memorial Documentation Project’. By focusing while exhibition texts are usually and the Lern- und Gedenkort Schloss on the national monuments in what written anonymously,23 the collection Hartheim memorial site, a project is known as the monument park, printed here deliberately seeks to which aimed to compile a complete Hildegard Schmid examines one of create a speciic connection between list of names of the victims of the the two main forms of remembrance the individual authors and the people ‘euthanasia’ programme involving of the dead at the Mauthausen they are writing about. concentration camp prisoners Memorial to date; the second of these Narrating the history of those who from the Mauthausen and Gusen forms is discussed by Tal Adler, who died is oten diicult simply through a concentration camps. explores the individual memorial lack of source material. In this project Christian Dürr and Ralf Lechner plaques found at the Mauthausen too, there were many cases where all introduce the section entitled and Gusen memorial sites from a attempts to write someone’s life story Background with an overview of photographic standpoint. Andreas came to nothing. he biographies of killing and dying in the Mauthausen/ Kranebitter and Niko Wahl close two Soviet prisoners of war, father and Gusen concentration camp. Florian the academic companion volume son Jan and Alexander Paraducha- Freund and Andreas Kranebitter then with a detailed presentation of the Scharuba, for example, could not be use statistical analysis to consider concept for the Room of Names at the reconstructed in any detail despite the diferent groups of prisoners Mauthausen Memorial. a range of enquiries. While the card who died, while also looking at the index of the German Wehrmacht and diferent functions played by the The biographies of the dead – the death register for Soviet prisoners ‘main camp’ at Mauthausen and its approaching the ‘limits of the of war tells us that they were among subcamps. Bertrand Perz discusses sayable’ the 4,000 prisoners of war who arrived the mass killings at the Mauthausen Naming the names can convey a on 20 October 1941 and that they died concentration camp, thereby shiting sense of the scale of the mass murder in March and July 1942 respectively, the perspective from dying to killing. carried out in the various camps of no other trace of them was found,

22 even by the municipal administration Mauthausen Concentration Camp the mass murder at Mauthausen in the town of Horokhiv, who and its Subcamps, a total of 308 texts concentration camp and its subcamps. searched for acquaintances or any were selected in agreement with all We are especially pleased that documents relating to the two men.24 those involved and in accordance with the composition of the pool of he majority of stories are lost to time certain criteria. No form had been authors of these biographies is as so that today’s eforts to reconstruct stipulated for the texts and any genre broad as the origins of those who them must necessarily fail. hey lie – whether academic article, literary died and to whom a biography beyond the ‘Raum des Sagbaren’ – the relection or personal reminiscence – is now dedicated. Contributions space of the sayable – as formulated was welcome. Seen from an academic were written by survivors of the by the Austrian sociologist Michael point of view, the texts’ scope Mauthausen concentration camp Pollak: ‘every statement is located make them biographical sketches and survivor associations, as well as in a space of the sayable, which is and portraits and incomplete life by academics, writers, relatives, and bounded by the absolute silence of stories.26 Only minor editorial changes staf at other memorial museums. those who were physically annihilated were made to the original texts, in No small number of those whom we (the silence of the millions of agreement with the authors. he bulk asked to participate – in particular concentration camp victims, whose of alterations concerned changing from among the circle of survivors of death is all that we know of them) and the spelling of surnames and place the Mauthausen concentration camp by the partial silence resulting from names to match those given in the list – did, in fact, refuse – not on principle the destruction of the ‘moral’ […] of names. he only exception here but because they no longer wanted to conditions that enable speech.’25 was for place names of concentration or could remember, or because, as the Any attempt to advance into this and extermination camps, which are Polish-Israeli author Roman Frister, space of absolute silence of those who given in German in this volume (e.g. who died in February 2015, put it, cannot speak necessarily remains ‘Plaszow concentration camp’). they had had the fortune to survive. selective. One possibility for getting Since the underlying idea of this Roman Frister put his refusal in the round this unavoidable selectivity to part of the project was to remember following words: ‘[I]t was the reality some extent was to open up the project the dead individually through the use of the camp which made it impossible and invite anyone interested in it to of diferent genres and not to present for me to form close friendships with contribute. he individual biographies museum texts by anonymous authors, other prisoners, and therefore the life and biographical sketches contained in the speciic connection between the and death of these people remains this volume were not to be written by writer and the person written about completely unknown to me. I came the staf of the Mauthausen Memorial, was a key criterion in choosing which to Mauthausen from Auschwitz in acting as it were by proxy, but by a biographies to include. Every author autumn 1944 and only stayed two or number of authors from a range of is therefore represented by at least three months in the camp and was ields and with a variety of motives for one biography in the memorial book. deported to Vienna (Saurer-Works). doing so. With this in mind, in June Furthermore, we tried to make the On a so-called death march, at the 2014 a call went out for contributors selection as broad a relection as beginning of April 1945, I returned – and the huge level of interest it possible of prisoner society in the to the camp – and lay practically generated outstripped all expectations. Mauthausen concentration camp unconscious in the inirmary until he result, overwhelming in every complex, taking into account the age, liberation. herefore, and only respect, of this immense level of sex, prisoner category and nationality, therefore, I cannot take part in this involvement and extraordinary level date of imprisonment and place of important project. I wish you great of interest was the submission of 1,867 death of those who died. However, it is success with the work, which I view as biographies of people who died at the important to emphasise that in no way a mission.’27 Mauthausen concentration camp and can the selection of biographies ever Supplementing the Memorial its subcamps, sent to us by over 250 be ‘representative’ – the individual Book for the Dead of the Mauthausen authors and institutions. life stories do not stand in for the Concentration Camp and its Subcamps For the print edition of the thousands who died, rather they can with the biographies of those Memorial Book for the Dead of the only serve as examples to illustrate murdered became an integral part

23 of the project as a whole. Precisely Schwanninger, Tatiana Szekely, institut za povijest, International because the destruction of the Jacek Tarasiewicz, Martin Wedl and Tracing Service, Institut für memory of the victims was part of the Wiktor Żyszkowski. Likewise, our Konliktforschung, KZ-Gedenkstätte annihilation itself, precisely because it huge thanks to those who translated Dachau, KZ-Gedenkstätte Ebensee, was intrinsic to the National Socialist the biographies into German – KZ-Gedenkstätte Flossenbürg, utopia of a ‘thousand year Reich’, Camilla Brunelli, Katharina Czachor, Lern- und Gedenkort Schloss as Harald Welzer has convincingly Maria Hörtner, Merethe Jensen, Hartheim, Lietuvos gyventojų argued,28 the attempt undertaken Ines Koeltzsch, Nedina Malinović, genocido ir rezistencijos tyrimo here, as elsewhere, to reconstruct Andrea Peyrou, Jana Starek, Tatiana centras, Mauthausen Committee images and histories of the victims Szekely and Veronika Zangl. For the Slovenia, Mauthausen Committee conveyed not through the eyes of the translation of the entire volume into of the Czech Republic, Ministerstvo perpetrators but through photographs English, we would especially like to obrany České republiky, Ministarstvo and stories that date from before thank Joanna White. rada, zapošljavanja i socijalne politike deportation, takes on incredibly We are grateful to the embassies of Republike Srbije, Ministerstvo Vnútra important antifascist signiicance. the following countries in Austria who Slovenskej Republiky, Obshchestvo provided contacts to institutions in Byvshikh Rossiyskikh Uznikov Thanks their counties or themselves assisted Kontslagerya Mauthausen (OBRUM), he project Memorial Book for the in checking information: Albania, Państwowe Muzeum Auschwitz- Dead of the Mauthausen Concentration Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Birkenau, Stichting Vriendenkring Camp and its Subcamps was, as Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Mauthausen, Udruženje zatočenika the preceding remarks have tried Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, koncentracionog logora Mauthauzen to show, an outstanding example France, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Srbije. of international cooperation and Italy, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Latvia, he following people played a its realisation could not have been Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, signiicant role in entering, correcting possible without the help of countless Moldova, Netherlands, Poland, or making records available, or in project partners and without the Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, the technical and graphic processing generous inancial support of the Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain. Our thanks of data at diferent stages of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, also go to the following institutions for project: Baris Alakus, Krzysztof the Future Fund of the Republic of providing or correcting information: Antończyk, Sabrina Auböck, Andreas Austria and the National Fund of the Amicale des déportés, familles Baumgartner, Yasmina Beciragic, Republic of Austria for the Victims of et amis de Mauthausen (France), Suzanne de Bekker, Jan Benda, Benito National Socialism. Amicale Nationale des Prisonniers Bermejo, Ionne Bii, Veronika Brandt, Our thanks irst of all to the many Politiques et Ayants Droit du Camp Elżbieta Byrdziak, Egin Ceka, Sandra people who wrote biographies and de Concentration de Mauthausen/ Checa, Pierre Serge Choumof, academic articles – they are named Nationale Vriendenkring van Politieke Tamara Ćirić, Jakub Deka, Guy alongside their work in this volume Gevangenen en Rechthebbenden Dockendorf, Henny E. Dominicus, and on the corresponding project van het Concentratiekamp van Paul Dostert, Peter Egger, Christoph website. Many of the authors were Mauthausen (Belgium), Associazione Etzlsdorfer, Florian Freund, Vladimir active in helping to collect further nazionale ex deportati nei campi Geiger, Martin Gilly, Heide Gsell, biographies and spread the word nazisti, Centre de Documentation Rudolf A. Haunschmied, Julius about the project; in particular we et de Recherche sur la Résistance, Höck, Johannes Ibel, Vlastislav would like to thank Sabine Brunotte, Comité International de Mauthausen, Janík, Merethe Jensen, Matthias Juan M. Calvo, Guy Dockendorf, Paul Dokumentationsarchiv des Kaltenbrunner, Sonia Kamenova, Dostert, Eva Feenstra, Erich Hackl, österreichischen Widerstandes, Katharina Kniefacz, Albert Knoll, Maria Hörtner, Merethe Jensen, Fundacja Polsko-Niemieckie Monika Kokalj Kočevar, Hilda Lubor Jílek, Alexey Konopachenkov, Pojednanie, Gedenkstätte Kolevska, Alexej Konopatschenkow, Gianfranco Maris (†), Beate Meyer, Bergen-Belsen, Holokauszt Ilja Kruglow, Neven Kulenović, Raimund Pajer, Willy Pypen, Florian Emlékközpont Budapest, Hrvatski Adeline Lee, Gianfranco Maris,

24 Giovanna Massariello, Andrea Mayr, 2 Götz Aly/Karl Heinz Roth: Die restlose pp. 50–63. he criteria for ‘matching’ Hazir Mehmeti, Irene Müller, Marica Erfassung. Volkszählen, Identiizieren, pieces of data (‘record linkage’), as well as Aussondern im Nationalsozialismus the sotware created to meet the needs of Karakaš Obradov, Claudia Ofner, (Berlin 1984). the project were developed at the Archive Reinhard Otto, Monika Pekova, 3 Harald Welzer: Verweilen beim Grauen. of the Mauthausen Memorial together Aikaterini Petraki, Alexander Essays zum wissenschatlichen Umgang with Martin Gilly (of the irm metamagix). Prenninger, Wolfgang Quatember, mit dem Holocaust (Tübingen 1997). 12 See the article by Ralf Lechner in this Also cf. Petra Fuchs/Maike Rotzoll/ volume. Markus Rachbauer, Christiane Ulrich Müller/Paul Richter/Gerrit 13 Background information on the irst Rachez, Martina Grahek Ravančić, Hohendorf (ed.): “Das Vergessen der phase of the redesign of the Mauthausen Armin Rockenschaub, Jakob Vernichtung ist Teil der Vernichtung Memorial is given in: Federal Ministry of selbst”. Lebensgeschichten von Opfern the Interior (ed.): bulletin Mauthausen, Rosenberg, Nicole Schneider, Florian der nationalsozialistischen “Euthanasie” No. 1 (2013). (Göttingen 2007). Schwanninger, Oula Silvennoinen, 14 Cf. Andreas Kranebitter: Zahlen als Dušan Stefančič, Walter Stromberger, 4 Leon Zelman: Ein Leben nach dem Zeugen. Soziologische Analysen zur Überleben (Vienna 1995), p. 92. Vojtěch Šustek, Tatiana Szekely, Réka Hätlingsgesellschat des KZ Mauthausen. 5 Jorge Semprún: Literature or Life. Mauthausen-Studien, vol. 9 (Vienna 2015), Tercza, Gerhard Ungar, Soie Van Translated from the French by Linda pp. 171–174. Wassenhove, Doris Warlitsch and Coverdale (New York 1997), pp. 14–15. 15 For a discussion of the gaps in the Ljubomir Zečević. 6 See the article by Niko Wahl and Andreas documentation in surviving sources, i.e. in Conceptual and editorial decisions Kranebitter in this volume, as well as particular the diiculties posed by a lack of the two exhibition catalogues published sources relating to those victims who were were taken by Christian Dürr, Maria by the Association for Remembrance not recorded in the oicial registers of the Hörtner, Andreas Kranebitter, Ralf and Historical Research in Austrian concentration camp by the SS, cf. ibid., Lechner, Niko Wahl and Juliana Concentration Camp Memorials: pp. 151–174. he Mauthausen Concentration Camp 16 On the state of research in May 2013, cf. Zeiser, under advice from the 1938–1945. Catalogue to the exhibition Andreas Kranebitter: he Dead of the working group for the redesign of the at the Mauthausen Memorial (Vienna Mauthausen/Gusen Concentration Camps. 2013); he Crime Scenes of Mauthausen Mauthausen Memorial, in particular Memorial Book and ‘Room of Names’ – Searching for Traces. Catalogue to the in: Federal Ministry of the Interior (ed.): Bertrand Perz and Jörg Skriebeleit. exhibition at the Mauthausen Memorial bulletin Mauthausen, No. 1 (2013), pp. Wilhelm Stadler was responsible for (Vienna 2014). 61–65. On more recent research cf. the coordinating the project on behalf 7 Cf. Claude Lanzmann: Mein Film article by Maria Hörtner and Alexander ist völlig frei (http://www.proil.at/ Prenninger in this volume. of the Association for Remembrance articles/1342/579/367983/claude- 17 Among the memorial books published and Historical Research in Austrian lanzmann-mein-ilm, accessed on in recent years that served as models Concentration Camp Memorials. 18.10.2013). for this memorial book and with whose For the technical and graphic design 8 With thanks to Manuel Schilcher (arge editors we were, as a rule, in contact Marie) and Walter Stromberger (kest) for are (ordered by publication year): State of the website, which is an integral this information. Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau (ed.): part of this project, we would like 9 Cf. Andreas Baumgartner: Die Death Books from Auschwitz (Munich/ to thank Gregor Anreiter, Tim Hätlinge des KZ-Mauthausen. Providence/London/Paris 1995); Quellendokumentation und Datenbank. Institut heresienstädter Initiative (ed.): Hacker, Johannes Hamecher, Philipp Projektbericht im Autrag des heresienstädter Gedenkbuch. Die Opfer Hezoucky, Alexander Pöll and Andrea Bundesministeriums für Inneres (Vienna der Judentransporte aus Deutschland 1996). nach heresienstadt 1942–1945 (Prague Wagner. 2000); Institut heresienstädter 10 Since 2006, the following people have been Initiative/Dokumentationsarchiv involved to a large extent in interpreting des österreichischen Widerstandes 1 A copy of this book found its way into sources, processing data and in editorial (ed.): heresienstädter Gedenkbuch. the Archive of the Mauthausen Memorial work at the Archive of the Mauthausen Österreichischen Juden und Jüdinnen only several years ater his death. his was Memorial: Baris Alakus, Sabrina Auböck, in heresienstadt 1942–1945 (Prague a copy that Camille Scholtes had sent to Veronika Brandt, Maria Hörtner, Andrea 2005); Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Hans Maršálek in 1970 (cf. Todesfälle und Mayr, Irene Müller, Armin Rockenschaub, Ravensbrück (ed.): Gedenkbuch für täglicher Lagerbestand Ebensee [Deaths Jakob Rosenberg and Juliane Zeiser. die Opfer des Konzentrationslagers and daily prisoner count in Ebensee], 11 Cf. Christian Dürr: Die Hätlinge des Ravensbrück 1939–1945 (Berlin 2005); Archive of the Mauthausen Memorial Konzentrationslagers Mauthausen. Stitung Niedersächsische Gedenkstätten [henceforth AMM] B/05/35). he original Ein Erfassungsprojekt des Archivs (ed.): Gedenkbuch. Hätlinge des of the book is considered lost – cf. Florian der KZ-Gedenkstätte Mauthausen, Konzentrationslagers Bergen-Belsen Freund: Die Toten von Ebensee. Analyse in: Dokumentationsarchiv des (Celle 2005); KZ-Gedenkstätte und Dokumentation der im KZ Ebensee österreichischen Widerstands (ed.): Dachau: Gedenkbuch für die Toten umgekommenen Hätlinge 1943–1945 Jahrbuch 2007. Schwerpunkt: Namentliche des Konzentrationslagers Dachau (Vienna 2010), p. 58 and p. 423. Erfassung von NS-Opfern (Vienna 2007), (Dachau 2011); also the memorial

25 books available online held in the (Klagenfurt/Vienna 2014); Peter Ulrich Autorität und Autorschat in Ausstellungen Bundesarchiv Berlin (https://www. Lehner: Verfolgung, Widerstand und (Vienna 2005), pp. 9–12, here p. 10. bundesarchiv.de/gedenkbuch/intro. Freiheitskampf in Hernals. Ereignisse, 24 Research into this case was carried out html.de), the Buchenwald and Mittelbau- Gestalten, Orte, Spuren in einem Wiener by Tatiana Szekely and Reinhard Otto, Dora Memorial Museums (http://www. ArbeiterInnenbezirk – Ein Heimatbuch whom I thank for this point. Jan Paraducha buchenwald.de/483/), the Documentation der anderen Art (Vienna 2014). Scharuba was born on 3 August 1908 in Centre of Austrian Resistance (http:// 18 See the article by Maria Hörtner and Belo Polje, his son Alexander on 29 August www.doew.at/personensuche), and Alexander Prenninger in this volume. 1924 in the same place. the Yad Vashem memorial (http:// db.yadvashem.org/names/search. 19 See the article by Florian Schwanninger in 25 Michael Pollak: Die Grenzen des Sagbaren. html?language=de). Memorial books this volume. Lebensgeschichten von KZ-Überlebenden in which the dead of the Mauthausen 20 Andreas Kappeler: Die Sowjetunion als Augenzeugenberichte und als concentration camp are remembered und ihre Nationen, in: Katharina Ritter/ Identitätsarbeit (Frankfurt am Main/ include: Stichting Vriedenkring Ekaterina Shapiro-Obermair/Dietmar New York 1988), p. 93. Taking up Michael Mauthausen (ed.): Mauthausen. Een Steiner/Alexandra Wachter (ed.): Pollak, it could be said that the aim of this Gedenkboek (Amsterdam 1999); Benito Sowjetmoderne 1955–1991. Unbekannte project is ‘to use language to create a space Bermejo/Sandra Checa: Libro Memorial. Geschichten (Vienna/Zürich 2012), in which the many diferent voices can be Españoles deportados a los campos nazis pp. 13–15, here p. 14. heard. In doing so, the autobiographical (1940–1945) (Madrid 2006); Florian character of the witness statement is 21 Cf. Martina Grahek Ravančić/Marica overcome without a forced departure from Freund: Die Toten von Ebensee; Andreas Karakaš Obradov: he Mauthausen Baumgartner: Die Hätlinge des Loibl- the level of the individual and unique in Memorial Centre’s List of Mauthausen favour of the more general, as is the case KZ. Ein Gedenkbuch (Vienna 2010); Camp Victims from Yugoslav Territory. Brunello Mantelli/Nicola Tranfaglia for narratives with legal, academic or he Possibility of Ascertaining the Names political motivations’ (ibid., p. 131). (ed.): Il libro dei deportati. 3 vols. (Milan and Numbers of Victims from Croatia’s 2009); Peter Pirker/Anita Profunser (ed.): Territory. In: Review of Croatian History, 26 Cf. e.g. Christian Klein (ed.): Handbuch Aus dem Gedächtnis in die Erinnerung 9th edition (2013), vol. 1, pp. 141–150. Biographien. Methoden, Traditionen, – Die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus heorien (Stuttgart/Weimar 2009), 22 Saul Friedländer: Nazi Germany and im Oberen Drautal (Klagenfurt/Vienna p. 4f. Florian Schwanninger and Irene the Jews. he Years of Persecution 2012); Jaroslav Čvančara/Vlastislav Janík/ Zauner-Leitner write of a ‘biographical 1933–1939 (London 1998), p. 5. Also cf. Václav Ledvinka/Vojtěch Šustek: Pamětní reader’ (Schwanninger/Zauner-Leitner: Marc Buggeln: Arbeit und Gewalt. Das Kniha. 294 hrdinů a obětí heydrichiády Lebensspuren, p. 13) in relation to their Außenlagersystem des KZ Neuengamme popravených v Mauthausenu (Prague collection of life stories of victims of (Göttingen 2009), p. 487. 2013); Florian Schwanninger/Irene ‘euthanasia’ at the Hartheim Castle killing Zauner-Leitner (ed.): Lebensspuren. 23 Exhibition texts ‘are a text type that does facility. Biograische Skizzen von Opfern der not identify its author: room and object 27 Email from Roman Frister to Ralf Lechner, NS-Tötungsanstalt (Innsbruck/Vienna/ texts conceal the positionality of their 17 June 2014, AMM temporary archive. Bolzano 2013); Brigitte Entner: Wer war information’ – Beatrice Jaschke/Charlotte 28 Cf. Welzer: Verweilen beim Grauen, in Klara aus Šentlipš/St. Philippen? Kärntner Marinz-Turek/Nora Sternfeld: Vorwort, particular pp. 43–48. Slowenen und Sloweninnen als Opfer in: Beatrice Jaschke/Charlotte Marinz- der NS-Verfolgung. Ein Gedenkbuch Turek/Nora Sternfeld (ed.): Wer spricht?

26 Ralf Lechner

Naming the Dead. Sources for the memorial book and compiling the names of those deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp

In April 1945, the SS began to for any surviving relatives not only Tätigkeitsbericht (activity report) in destroy the traces of its crimes at the as information but also for legal the suspended ceiling of the oice and, Mauthausen concentration camp. purposes, could therefore not be saved by doing so, preserved an invaluable Facilities constructed for mass from destruction.3 document for writing the history of killing were dismantled and those Attempts by other concentration the camp.7 concentration camp prisoners who, on camp prisoners to rescue documents On 6 May 1945, a ‘War Crimes account of their position in the camp, met with greater success. For example, Investigating Team’ led by Major had become irst-hand witnesses the Spaniard Casimir Climent Sarrión, Eugene S. Cohen arrived at to mass murder were themselves like Kanthack assigned to the Political Mauthausen together with the hird killed.1 In the process of running the Section, managed to save documents US Army.8 his team was charged concentration camp, the SS had also relating to the Republican Spaniards with securing evidence of the war produced vast quantities of written and lists naming those murdered by crimes committed by the SS and, in documents which, in spite of every poison gas at the Hartheim Castle doing so, to lay the foundations for efort made to cover up the attributes killing facility.4 the military tribunals against the and dimensions of its crimes, On 20 April 1945 – in liberated perpetrators. During this process, were now incriminating pieces of Vienna, negotiations on the formation the team was able to draw on the evidence.2 Gerhard Kanthack, who of an Austrian government had documents that had been saved by had been a detective superintendent already begun – Ernst Martin, the prisoners. he materials collected in Berlin before concentration camp a prisoner clerk assigned to the by Cohen not only included a large imprisonment and who, as a prisoner, Mauthausen SS chief camp physician, number of sworn statements given was assigned as a clerk to the Political was given the order to burn any papers by liberated concentration camp Section of Mauthausen concentration found in the oice. he quantity of prisoners, photographs and lists camp, was given the order to burn paper was so great that, according to containing the names of SS guards,9 documents kept by the Political Martin, it took eight days to burn it but he also recovered the register of Section. his included not only the all. However, Martin was able to save ‘unnatural deaths’ which, according to personal iles and police photographs some documents from destruction the sworn statement given by Cohen, of nearly every prisoner, but also which later came to play a key role in was ‘found’ in the camp on 9 May.10 every death certiicate and a register both prosecuting the perpetrators and his book, which also recorded the of every death oicially certiied recording the dead.5 names of the executioners, formed by the Political Section. Kanthack Prisoners assigned to other the basis for several convictions of was aware of the signiicance of this departments of the SS camp members of the SS in US military death register as a piece of evidence administration were also able to court trials and, later on, in Austrian and attempted – under penalty of save evidence of the concentration People’s Court trials.11 death – to save it from destruction camp from destruction. he actions he most signiicant exhibits by hiding the documents under some of prisoners working in the records were the 13 death registers saved by boxes in a storeroom. However, department of the Political Section Ernst Martin, which he had handed his attempt failed when the SS and are well known, especially Francisco over to the American investigators Police Court, having been evacuated Boix i Campo, who managed to on 7 May 1945.12 Some of the death from Vienna, took up oice in this smuggle thousands of photographs out registers from the clerks’ oice of the room in the Political Section and of the camp.6 An unnamed prisoner Mauthausen SS chief camp physician discovered the documents. he death clerk working in the Administration had been kept by Ernst Martin and certiicates, which were important Section hid the chief administrator’s his fellow prisoner, Josef Ulbrecht.

27 Death register of the Mauthausen SS chief camp physician (Archive of the Mauthausen Memorial, AMM Y/46).

hey comprised seven books listing of death, name, date of birth, place the names of those who died in the the deaths at the Mauthausen of birth, cause of death, and date Mauthausen/Gusen concentration concentration camp and its subcamps and time of death. In cases where camp. Yet generated by or under the between 7 January 1939 and 22 April the death was oicially recorded as supervision of the perpetrators, these 1945, one book containing the ‘unnatural’, a note was added that the written documents are a relection of deaths of Soviet prisoners of war in prisoner in question was ‘executed on their ideology, necessitating a greater Mauthausen and Gusen between the orders of the Reich Chief of the level of critical source analysis.15 his 21 October 1941 and 31 March 1945, SS’ or ‘legally executed’, or was ‘shot kind of critical assessment is made and ive books in which the deaths while attempting to escape’ or had possible, above all, by the testimonies at the Gusen branch camp between committed suicide, or had died as the of survivors and postwar forensic 1 June 1940 and 27 April 1945 were result of an industrial accident. investigations. he death registers recorded.13 hese books document the deaths of the Mauthausen SS chief camp Organised in a consecutively of 68,839 people who died or were physician were used as evidence in numbered list, these death registers murdered in the Mauthausen/Gusen several trials.16 Numerous sworn record the nationality, prisoner concentration camp,14 making them statements and witness questioning category, prisoner number, place our main source of knowledge about in court allow us to decode the

28 cover-ups employed by the SS camp administration as its attempts to keep secret the true causes of death. Ernst Martin, Gerhard Kanthack and many others testiied that usually, murder had to be registered as a case of illness. In many cases, targeted murders using irearms were covered up as ‘shot while attempting to escape’. Oten, however, such murders were recorded as deaths from natural causes, since an entry of ‘unnatural death’ would result in a lengthy and therefore undesirable bureaucratic process culminating in a formal investigation into the death by the SS and Police Court in Vienna.17 Source analysis is also called for with regard to how prisoners’ personal information was entered into the death registers. Not only did the SS dehumanise prisoners by turning them from a person into a number on entering the concentration camp, but the perpetrators’ ideology also shows through in their eforts to Germanise the names of prisoners from non-German speaking countries. For example, the Polish concentration camp prisoner Wacław Bienias, Appendix to the death register of the Gusen inirmary listing diferent causes of death, marked with the addition: ‘only that which can be born in Łódź, is entered in SS determined without autopsy’18 (Archive of the Mauthausen Memorial, documents as Wenzel Bienias, born in AMM B/12/3). Litzmannstadt. Other factors also inluence the recounted in an interview how he camp throughout every Gestapo reliability of personal data given in the saved children from death by altering check.21 camp documents. Many of the clerks in their ages.19 Time and again it was also Although the SS had continued the camp administration oice, whose possible to save prisoners threatened to dispose of its paper trail until tasks included recording personal data, with execution by reporting them to shortly before leaving the camp on were not familiar with common forms the SS as dead and giving them the 3 May 1945,22 thousands of pages of of transliteration, resulting in spellings identity of a prisoner who had died. documentary material nevertheless of names that sometimes border on hese kinds of identity swap mean remained in the liberated camp. It was the unrecognisable, especially for that some individual concentration probably down to the sheer volume of deportees from the former Soviet camp prisoners are falsely recorded in paper produced by the SS bureaucracy Union. It is also important here to the documents as being either dead or that destroying every single document mention the practice used by prisoners alive.20 simply couldn’t be managed. and prisoner clerks of falsifying A few individual prisoners hese papers document diferent prisoners’ ages in documents in persecuted on political grounds were aspects of the camp’s history. here order to increase their chances of also able, ultimately, to maintain their are prisoner index cards compiled survival. Hans Maršálek, for example, cover identity in the concentration in the various camp clerks’ oices

29 and in the barracks by each ‘block oven from the crematorium, beams Historique de la Défense, Bureau des clerk’. A large number of lists of used as gallows from the room in front Archives des Victimes des Conlits names have also survived, duplicate of the crematorium, the gas chamber Contemporains, Caen, the Centre copies of which were sent between doors, a sheet-metal coin in which Historique des Archives Nationales, the departments of the camp some corpses were kept, any number Paris, the National Archives and administration, between the main of SS signs aimed at prisoners[.]’25 Records Administration, USA, camp and the subcamps, and between With regard to written records, as well as in the collections of the the concentration camp and external Maršálek’s research trips to France, International Tracing Service in Bad authorities such as the SS Economic Poland, Belgium and the Federal Arolson and in the Centre d’études et and Administrative Oice or the Reich Republic of Germany all bore fruit in de documentation guerre et société Main Security Oice.23 equal measure. He was able to collect contemporaine, Brussels.29 he documents that remained thousands of pages of documentary Despites eforts over the decades in the camp – as well as numerous material in these countries – some in to bring together all the documents artefacts – were subsequently facsimile, some also in the original relating to the inmates of the scattered across the world. No – for the planned museum and, in Mauthausen/Gusen concentration information is available as to whether doing so, laid the foundations for the camp, hitherto unknown documents or how these documents were divided collections held at the Archive of the are still being found. For example, up between the former prisoners Mauthausen Memorial.26 However, during a research project in 2011 and national prisoner associations.24 given the limits in terms of staf and looking at Soviet prisoners of war Charged in the mid-1960s with budget, Maršálek was only able to at the Mauthausen concentration the task of creating a permanent acquire some of the documents or only camp, the register of cremations for exhibition at the former concentration parts of collections he had located. the Gusen crematorium was found camp, Maršálek undertook research In the mid-1990s, the initiation in the State Archive of the Russian trips throughout Europe to search of a project to create a database Federation in Moscow.30 for documents and objects for the containing the names of all ‘Museum Mauthausen’. He made those deported to Mauthausen The databases noteworthy inds in ministries, at concentration camp lent renewed Since 1996, work has been on-going memorial sites, through survivor impetus to collecting activities at at the Archive of the Mauthausen associations and through former the archive. While at that time, 283 Memorial to compile a database of concentration camp prisoners, who original documents or copies of the names of the prisoners of the had held on to such items in private. documents relating to individuals Mauthausen/Gusen concentration Of his research trip to Czechoslovakia, could be identiied in the archive’s camp. In a pilot study, Andreas for example, he reported that: collections, today there are several Baumgartner designed a database ‘According to reliable information, thousand gathered in a separate for the female prisoners in the in May 1945 around 5 tons of database.27 To a large extent – as Mauthausen concentration camp.31 Mauthausen materials were regards the documentation of deaths Over the course of this project, the transferred from Mauthausen to the – in addition to the aforementioned decision was taken to structure the then Republic of Czechoslovakia, death book and other death database of names on records for and primarily to Prague. Firstly they registers28 these are mainly transfer individuals, rather than on sources. consisted of various documents, lists and death reports compiled in Taking the arrivals book of the written papers, lists, index cards the diferent departments of the camp ‘Mauthausen women’s concentration etc. from the Political Section, the administration and the subcamps. camp’, the irst step was to record each clerks’ oice, work detachment Today, the most comprehensive individual entry as it appeared in the oice, inirmary and construction holdings of these kinds of lists numerical list in the arrivals book. oice. Secondly they included the are held in the collections of the hese entries were then expanded stones from in front of the prisoners’ Instytut Pamięci Narodowej in with information from other sources. barracks which showed the block Warsaw, the Muzeum Auschwitz- his struture was also adopted for number, then parts of the oil-ired Birkenau, Oświęcim, the Service the subsequent design of a database

30 inmates. While the database for female prisoners, with around 4,000 entries, was still manageable, the follow-up project was signiicantly more complex and extensive. It was expected to encompass anything up to 200,000 entries taken from nearly 300 sources collected in the Archive of the Mauthausen Memorial.34 As the project progressed, ever more problems emerged around this design. he concept of a digital reproduction of the arrivals books that used the prisoner number as the unique identifying element ran counter to the aim of bringing all the information about one person together in one entry. his is because one and the same person would oten have been registered again under a diferent or even under several prisoners numbers ater having been sent away to a diferent concentration camp or to the Gusen branch camp and transferred back to the Mauthausen concentration camp. At the same time, until 1942, numbers that became ‘available’ through death, Notiication of change ‘departure (deceased)’ (Archiwum Państwowego release or transfer were reused for Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau, D-Mau V3, 1158). new arrivals. his was relected in the database, where frequently one of male prisoners of the Mauthausen but not completely identical way. person would be listed multiple times concentration camp.32 For each deportee they document under diferent entries, while likewise he main sources for this follow-up the prisoner number, name, date and one prisoner number would refer to project were the surviving numerical place of birth, nationality, prisoner several diferent people. lists and Evidenzbücher (prisoner category and – to varying degrees – Furthermore, the way the data information log books), which were information about where they were was captured did not diferentiate kept by three diferent sections of housed in the main camp or whether systematically between interpretation the SS camp administration: the they were currently assigned to the and a faithful reproduction of source prisoner arrivals book belonging to Gusen branch camp or a subcamp. material. So while some source entries the Political Section, the so-called Some also document the deportees’ were ‘translated’ (e.g. the nationality Standbuch of the post room, also a occupation or labour deployment, the ‘Soviet Union’ was used for deportees register of information, and inally date of their arrival at the Mauthausen who were marked as ‘russische the Zugangsbuch, the arrivals book concentration camp or information Zivilarbeiter’ / ‘RZA’ – ‘Russian that was probably kept by the about what happened to them civilian labourers’), others were taken administration of the Protective (deceased, transferred, discharged). unaltered from the documents. In Custody Camp.33 he information in his data structure was reproduced addition, the time needed to compile these sources is structured in a similar in the design for the database of the data was mounting steadily as

31 it became necessary to provide a remains so, the consolidation of data the card index of the SS Economic commentary on divergent information and interpretation now takes place and Administrative Oice held in taken from diferent sources, in order exclusively at a ‘meta-level’ that feeds collections in Poland and Germany and to make it clear where information had from these various sub-databases.39 compiled this information in databases, come from or why certain decisions Research projects and cooperations the Archive of the Mauthausen regarding spelling had been taken.35 resulted in databases from other Memorial was able to gather additional Eventually, in 2006, ater more than institutions also being integrated into data on 27,000 people.40 136,000 entries on prisoners had been this ‘meta-database’. he research project on female compiled, it became clear that only hrough its participation in prisoners at Mauthausen carried out by 43,000 deaths were recorded in the the international research project the Institut für Konliktforschung also arrivals books, as opposed to 70,000 in ‘Digitalisation of the WVHA-Prisoner resulted in an extensive database that the death registers.36 Index Cards’, which digitalised was likewise integrated into the new In 2006, work on this database was discontinued and ultimately Meta-Database integrated into a new database Databases at the AMM Databases from cooperation projects project. his new ‘meta-database’ Hätlingsdatenbank/Zugangsbücherdatenbank Datenbanken Hätlingskartei, was conceived in such a way that 126,599 records Lagerschreibstube, Sterbefälle, Fotograien, each source could be dealt with in its Archiv der KZ-Gedenkstätte Mauthausen Veränderungsmeldungen own database with a structure that (AMM) Y/36, Y/44 129,086 records Archiv Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau remained faithful to the source and Totenbücherdatenbank 69,899 records WVHA-Datenbank was independent of the very speciic AMM Y/46, B/12/3, National Archives and 27,885 records data structure of the arrivals books. Records Administration (NARA) Internationales Forschungsprojekt Several ‘sub-databases’ were Standbuch der Poststelle Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names now created for the ‘meta-database’ 53,868 records 43,947 records AMM Y/43 Yad Vashem project. he irst of these was known Liste Verstorbener nach Nationalität Projekt Sowjetische Kriegsgefangene as the ‘death register database’ and 29,290 records 37,736 records captured the information in the AMM Y/39 Reinhard Otto, Tatiana Szekely death registers of the SS chief camp Zugangslistendatenbank Datenbank 14f13-Opfer physicians of Mauthausen and Gusen 25,562 records 13,078 records Diverse AMM, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej Dokumentationsstelle Schloss Hartheim (supplemented by the death register (IPN) Die Toten von Ebensee from the Gusen inirmary) and the Liste der Überstellungen und Entlassungen 8,276 records death register of Soviet prisoners of 8,505 records Florian Freund war in one database.37 Additional AMM Y/37-38 Datenbank weibliche Hätlinge databases illed the gaps in the Standliste Gusen vom 23.1.1944 6,710 records 7,200 records Institut für Konliktforschung documentation regarding the early AMM B/12/50 Españoles deportados (1940–1945) days of the camp and brought together Verstorbene nach Befreiung 4,776 records disparate source materials on those 6,084 records Benito Bermejo who died shortly before or ater the various AMM, Bundesministerium für Liste des Françaises décédés Inneres (BMI), International Tracing liberation of the camp.38 4,264 records Service (ITS), Oberösterreichisches Amicale de Mauthausen hese databases were then Landesarchiv (OÖLA), Archiv der Stadt combined on an interpretive meta- Linz (AStL) Datenbank Exhumierungen 2,932 records level through a matching process. In Exekutionsbuch Alexander Prenninger 1,993 records this step, the more than 20 databases, AMM M/5/6 Gestapo-Kartei 582 records which in part contain varying data Additions from various holdings on the same person, were fed into a Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen 28,921 records Widerstandes (DÖW) person-based database. hus while various AMM, ITS Arolsen, IPN Datenbank K-Hätlinge the various sub-databases ensure that 524 records data is captured true to source and Reinhard Otto

32