Using numerous previously unpublished, original-source documents, this comprehensive study highlights the widely forgotten and neglected economic and administrative links between Mauthausen Concentration Camp complex and its key installations at St. Georgen and Gusen.

Along with new archival material, the book supplements the accepted historical narrative of Concentration Camp Mauthausen with information from local sources, survivors, and liberators. Special focus on the SS infrastructure at St. Georgen and Gusen reveals heretofore unknown aspects of the history of the concentration camps and the Holocaust in general.

Supplementing the history of World War II and the SS´s strategic involvement in German war production during the final phase of the war, this study corrects inaccuracies about German aircraft production caused by over-reliance on the United States Strategic Bombing Survey (USSBS). Special emphasis is given to joint ventures of the Waffen-SS with Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG and Messerschmitt GmbH Regensburg which resulted in the realization of a top secret, technologically advanced underground plant for the serial production of Me-262 jet planes in St. Georgen.

Also discussed in depth for the first time is the chaotic result of General Patton’s failure to prepare for the liberation and occupation of the St. Georgen-Gusen-Mauthausen complex prior to Soviet occupation.

The Market Community of St. Georgen/Gusen, Austria, the Province of Upper Austria, and the Gusen Memorial Committee sponsor this publication; proceeds support the international commemorative and research endeavors of the Gusen Memorial Committee (GMC).

The authors:

Siegi Witzany-Durda

Siegi Witzany-Durda, a native of St. Georgen/Gusen, is married with two adolescent children. She teaches German and English at a private Catholic high school. Growing up in the St. Georgen/Gusen area, she developed an interest in the history of the Gusen camps already as a teenager and felt an urge to dig deeper.
She has been an active member of the Gusen Memorial Committee (GMC) since 1996. Her field of activity covers contacts with survivors and guided tours with visitors from English speaking countries as well as from Austria. Teaching the Holocaust is an essential part of her educational work.

Jan-Ruth Mills

As a native American, Jan-Ruth Mills earned her MFA at Columbia University in 1983. In 1997 Rudolf A. Haunschmied asked her to edit the English on the Mauthausen-Gusen Info-Pages. At that time, she began researching the Gusen Camps at the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Alabama. Jan-Ruth Mills made the first of many trips to the St. Georgen-Gusen-Mauthausen area in 1998. The next year, she also began yearly research trips to the National Archives and Record Administration, College Park, Maryland. In early 2008, Ms. Jan-Ruth Mills was awarded Honorary Member of the Gusen Memorial Committee for her dedicated support and active contribution in helping to bring the sacrifice of tens of thousands of forgotten inmates of the former KL Gusen I, II & III Concentration Camps to the attention of a wider public and to keep the memory of the victims alive.

Rudolf A. Haunschmied

Rudolf A. Haunschmied was born in St. Georgen/Gusen. He grew up and lived in the St. Georgen-Gusen-Mauthausen area for more than 30 years. Even as a youngster, before his education as a mechanical engineer, he researched the "lost" history of the concentration camp complex St. Georgen-Gusen-Mauthausen.
Currently Mr. Haunschmied requests Austrian authorities to get the former underground plant "Bergkristall" open to the public and to get it an integral part of the official Austrian conception of the "Mauthausen" Museum. All the work he had done on the St. Georgen-Gusen-Mauthausen complex in the last 25 years was done in his spare-time or leave.
A few weeks ago the Provincial Government of Upper Austria awarded him and other members of the GMC "Verdienstmedaille des Landes Oberösterreich" (a medal of merit of the Province of Austria) for his dedicated commemorative activities within "Arbeitskreis für Heimat-, Denkmal- und Geschichtspflege St. Georgen/Gusen" and the "Gusen Memorial Committee".

Rudolf A. Haunschmied * Jan-Ruth Mills * Siegi Witzany-Durda
ST. GEORGEN-GUSEN-MAUTHAUSEN
Concentration Camp Mauthausen Reconsidered
Books on Demand, Norderstedt, 2008
292 Pages, 49 Illustrations (including maps)
ISBN: 978-3-8334-7440-8

The book can be ordered online at:
www.amazon.com
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