SS-Siedlung Mauthausen – Ein Überblick. „Sippengemeinschaft“ privilegierter Funktionsgruppen neben dem Konzentrationslager?

Abstract

When the buildings of the former Mauthausen concentration camp were handed over to the Republic of Austria by the commander-in-chief of the Soviet troops on 20 June 1947, they also included eleven semi-detached houses and a ‘commandant's villa’ of the former SS settlement. This had since been named after the Austrian resistance fighter Richard Bernaschek, who was murdered in the Mauthausen concentration camp. The restitution marks the beginning of research into the former camp site and its development as a memorial. The residential buildings, in which members of the camp leadership and other SS members lived together with their families, passed into private ownership and have since been continuously modernised and converted. They have received little academic attention. Until now, it was not known who lived in the houses until 1945. As the first interim result of a private research project on family biographies under National Socialism, this essay aims to provide answers to the following questions: Who were the residents of the SS estate? Why did they live there? What did they witness of the violence in and around the concentration camp?

DOI: https://doi.org/10.57820/mm.comments.2024.04