14 December 2018

This post is part of day 79 of my journey.

This is the story of how I entered a concentration camp.

I was following the Jerusalem way, just like I did the last few days. Then I arrived here at a big open area totally flat. Later I found out it had been a quarry.

 

 

 

Then there was this sign, which was written in Dutch. I found it a bit awkward, but did not think too long about it. 

 

The route led over these stairs and then up.

But there was a fence up front. It said: ”the stairs of death were closed”. I thought it was just winter sphere. Like all other places. So I ignored it and went up. 

 

It was a long climb of 186 stairs. Here is an overview.

Over this cobblestone road I continued.

 

There were a lot of monuments on top of the hill. All from different countries. Here is one from Germany, I thought it is some payback for the war. I still had no idea where I was. 

This one is of the Sovjet Union.

There were so many monuments. Very remarkable.

Then I continued the Jerusalem way. So I looked on the map on my handy and it said that this place was a museum. I went to the website of Mauthausen and found out that I was at a concentration exterminating camp. There was a cantiiene I sat down there and read the story of the camp 

The day was still young so I decided to take a look around (I think it would be a shame if I didn’t), it was a good diction. But I had my backpack with me and it’s not nice to look around with. My bag was too big for the lookers, but luckily I could leave it at the bookstore. The women there told me what I should see and said the stairs of death (Die Todesstiege) was closed.

Then I said that I already had been there and walked them and that it was the way I entered the camp.

This is how the Prisoners climb the stairs. So I have I backpack on around 21 kg. The Prisoners carry stones of 50 kg

SS photo, between 1942 and 1944 (photo credits: Mauthausen Memorial)

 

They gave me a map in Dutch and pointed out what I really needed to see.

These are the baracks where the prisoners had to live (left).

This man died last month (okt 2018).

 

When I was walking in here, I was eating my lunch (that Helmut gave me). It was weird eating while you know that people were starving here, especially in ‘Lager II’.

 

Then I went into the museum. This is one of the ovens where they would ‘stuff’ 8 people at once. 

A room with photos of the victims.

 

On the wall are all names, this is +-1/3 of the names. There where also three real big books with all the names.

Unbelievable! 

 

This was the camp, it was a weird experience. I have no words for it.

The story of my journey with day 79.