Mauthausen-Studien 5: Stanisław Dobosiewicz

The book "Mauthausen / Gusen. Obóz zagłady" by Stanisław Dobosiewicz was published in Warsaw in 1977. Now translated into German, it is the fifth volume in the series ‘Mauthausen-Studien’. Building on earlier works, in particular those published in Poland by former prisoners, and on his own research, the text is the first systematic attempt to produce an overall history of the Gusen camp. Alongside its academic credentials, the text also documents the author’s attempt to work through his own experiences of the camp.

Over 70,000 deportees were imprisoned in the Gusen concentration camp, the branch camp of the Mauthausen concentration camp, between the end of 1939 and May 1945; around half of them died from the inhuman conditions under which they were held or in systematic mass murder operations. For long periods, Gusen was the largest concentration camp on Austrian territory in terms of prisoner numbers. While memories of the camp faded in Austria shortly after liberation and traces of it disappeared, in Poland the Gusen concentration camp remains a focal point in collective memory to this day. Volume 5 is the first detailed history of Gusen concentration camp in German.

Stanislaw Dobosiewicz, born in 1910, was a survivor of the Gusen concentration camp. He died in 2007.