Mauthausen

We finally had an absolutely beautiful day to travel a little bit. We decided to go to Mauthausen, a concentration camp from World War II, located about an hour away from the house near Linz. This was a very difficult trip, we had no idea what we were about to see. We thought that it might be a little small ruin, but it was a huge complex. You actually couldn't see it until you came upon it. It's hard to imagine that the regular people on the farms did not really know that mass murder was occuring right under their nose, but it was. At this complex, over 70,000 people were killed, from all nationalities. There were Jews, politicians, citizens who resisted the Nazi Regime, Bible scholars, gypsies, and homosexuals. The able prisoners were made to work in the nearby stone quary, harvesting granite. We stayed several hours, and we could have stayed longer, but it was very difficult.

If you ever have a chance to visit a concentration camp, if you are able to, I would recommend that you go. It really makes you think a lot, it affects you. May God bless the people who fought in that war, and in any war, and the families who have lost loved ones.