Subcamp Stelae

To comprehend ‘Mauthausen’ is to understand the Mauthausen-Gusen complex with its more than 40 subcamps. For too long, critical engagement with the crimes committed within the Mauthausen concentration camp system was limited to the main camp at Mauthausen, and likewise remembrance of the victims. There is little to remember the victims of the many subcamps, which became increasingly important for the National Socialist armaments industry as the war progressed. The fact that the concentration camp crimes extended over almost all of Austria – that Mauthausen was and is, so to speak, ‘on the doorstep’ – is hardly known to the public. Many of the former crime scenes lack any form of memorial or information that would connect them to Mauthausen.

The Commemorative Department at the Mauthausen Memorial therefore worked with local memorial initiatives to develop a uniform, recognisable, iconic marker for all former subcamps of the Mauthausen concentration camp system, in order to place the former crime scenes in a topographical context and enable people to grasp, visually, the connection to Mauthausen.

The Symbolism of the Subcamp Stelae

The design of the stelae has a high recognition factor and reflects the serious subject matter in its expressive elements. The repeating basic form of the column is borrowed from the triangular badge worn by concentration camp inmates, which marked them according to National Socialist ideology and which has been used on numerous monuments and memorials since 1945.

The entire subcamp system is to be referenced not only at the Mauthausen Memorial itself, but at every site of a former subcamp. Each ‘Subcamp Stela’ indicates the direction and distance of all the other subcamps and of the Mauthausen main camp. In this way, all the stelae are similar, even if they differ in detail depending on the location. References to the Mauthausen Memorial and local memorial initiatives provide the necessary historical and administrative information. The Subcamp Stelae thus not only visualise the complexity of the Mauthausen concentration camp system, but also trace the deportation routes of concentration camp prisoners.