page_title: Ebensee concentration camp
section_title: Conditions
hierarchical_section_title: Ebensee concentration camp / Conditions
caption_attribution_description: English: see title
context_page_description: Ebensee was a subcamp of Mauthausen concentration camp established by the SS to build tunnels for armaments storage near the town of Ebensee, Austria, in 1943. The camp held a total of 27,278 male inmates from 1943 until 1945. Between 8,500 and 11,000 prisoners died in the camp, most from hunger or malnutrition. Political prisoners were most common, and prisoners came from many different countries. Conditions were poor, and along with the lack of food, exposure to cold weather and forced hard labor made survival difficult. American troops of the US 80th Infantry Division liberated the camp on May 6, 1945.
  Residential homes now exist on the site of the camp, and a memorial cemetery is nearby. A memorial tunnel, created in 1994, and a Museum for Contemporary History Ebensee, created in 2001, provide information about the camp to visitors.
context_section_description: Prisoners worked on 11-hour shifts unless they were working in the tunnels, when they worked in one of three 8-hour shifts. Lice infested the camp, and sawdust from mattresses caused prisoners to suffer. Food rations consisted of coffee for breakfast, hot water with spoiled potatoes for lunch; and a piece of bread with water for dinner. Prisoners were always hungry. Those who worked within the camp did not have to labor as strenuously as those assigned to work outside the camp. Many companies were employed to oversee the work on tunnel construction, including Dywidag, Hinteregger und Fischer, Stuag, Fohmann, Holzmann und Polensky, Wiener Brückenbau, Dr. Müller, Heckmann und Langen, Universale Bau AG., Rella & Co., Hofmann und Maculan, Walther, Grossdeutche Schachtbau, Fröhlich und Klüpfel, H. Koppers, Siemens Schukkert, Siemens Bauunion, Beton und Monierbau, Ferrobetonit, Latzel und Katscha, Swietelsky, Brandl, Roth, Hitler, and Herbsthofer. These companies provided civilian workers who each supervised several prisoners in the work. The SS, wanting to please the companies, sought to provide them with the number of prisoners they requested, even if those prisoners were dying. SS soldiers and appointed prisoners called Kapos also oversaw prisoners with varying degrees of brutality.
  In an oral history interview, camp survivor Max Moneta reported that the barracks were not heated and that meals were irregular. There were no baths, and lice were common. Prisoners who worked the night shift were not allowed to sleep in the barracks during the day. Moneta said that fellow non-Jewish prisoners discriminated against Jewish prisoners. Former prisoner Serge de Moussac also remembers that Hungarian Jews had long working hours and were abused by Ganz. In the Jewish sick room in the camp, 1,503 Jewish prisoners were recorded. Ninety-five percent died from "hunger and diseases resulting from malnutrition."  While about a third of prisoners were constantly at the edge of starvation, a "high society" of 7-8% of prisoners worked in jobs inside the camp, had clothing, and extra opportunities to get food. Educated "political" prisoners were placed in administrative tasks, while criminal prisoners also had desirable positions in the prison's self-government. The death rate for Italian prisoners in Ebensee was 53%; after Mussolini's fall in 1943, Italians were marked as traitors. Jewish prisoners had a death rate of almost 40%. The nationality with the lowest death rate was Spanish, with a 0.9% death rate.
  As allied forces closed in on Nazi territories, prisoners from other camps were sent to Ebensee, and there was not enough food to feed everyone. In May 1944, about 15% of prisoners were officially ill, but in May 1945, just before liberation, almost half of the prisoners were officially ill. Prisoner doctors and fellow Spanish prisoners working in medical supply depots smuggled additional food into the camp. From 1943 to 1944, many dangerously ill prisoners were transported back to Mauthausen. In June 1944, Jewish prisoners started to arrive. Beginning in 1945, thousands of prisoners from other concentration camps arrived in Ebensee. They were mostly Jewish. On March 3, 1945, over 2,000 Jewish prisoners arrived from the Wolfsberg sub-camp of Gross-Rosen. Commander Anton Ganz forced them to remain outside during snowy weather for almost two days, and hundreds of prisoners died of exhaustion caused by transport to the camp and of exposure. The following April, around 4,500 prisoners died. In May 1945, there were 18,500 inmates. After the many deaths in March and April, the crematorium could not cremate all the bodies, and Ganz ordered two secret mass graves to dispose of 2,167 dead bodies.
caption: Former appelplatz at Ebensee with survivors
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