The Executions Of Mauthausen’s Neck Shooting Basement JJ

During World War II, inside of the concentration camps, the SS invented different ways of tricking inmates and prisoners to go willingly to their fates. When they arrived at camps such as Auschwitz, victims were unloaded from the trains and they then underwent selection. If they were deemed not fit enough to do heavy labor that was expected at the camp, they were then driven brutally towards the gas chambers.

Inside many camps, more deceit and deception was used to send people to their deaths. Inside Buchenwald concentration camp, there was a neck shooting facility established in which prisoners believed they were having a medical exam, but then when they were facing the other way, a hatch opened behind a fake height measuring device and through popped a pistol being held by an SS executioner.

In this manner, thousands of people, especially Soviet POWs at Buchenwald, suffered their horrific execution. But there was a very similar chamber of death found within Mauthausen concentration camp. And this showed the extent that the SS went to bringing the executions of some prisoners. But specifically, what happened inside the fake camera execution chamber? Mauthausen concentration camp wasn’t found in Germany, but was actually located inside Austria.

It was located near to a number of quarries and the expectation was that the prisoners would conduct physically demanding labor that would eventually break them. Extermination through labor was the policy of the day and over the course of 7 years that was open, 190,000 prisoners passed through the barbed wire fences and over 90,000 were killed.

Inside the camp, prisoners were regularly driven up the 186 stone steps, known as the stairs of death, many times a day whilst being forced to carry incredibly heavy stone blocks. This was torture and was incredibly dangerous. Death was also around every single corner at the hands of the SS guards who could turn their murderous antics towards any prisoner at the drop of a hat.

There were many execution methods deployed within Mauthausen. From SS guards throwing inmates off the top of a cliff face to the gallows in which many people could be executed at the same time. But hidden within a secret basement within the crematoria, the place where the bodies of dead prisoners were being burned and dealt with, was an execution chamber devised for mass slaughter.

Neck shooting was an execution method deployed en masse by the Nazis. And an executioner would simply place his pistol in the nape of the victim’s neck and then fire. But inside the camps, the SS relied on deceit to murder prisoners in this way. There were, as mentioned, fake medical facilities and even fake hospitals set up to trick prisoners into thinking they were going to receive some form of medical care or treatment.

But all they would receive was a bullet to the neck. Inside of Mauthausen, the SS were even more creative in hiding their real intentions. Inside the underground crematoria bunker was a facility which was made to look like a photographer’s studio. And it was made to look like prisoners were about to have their photographs taken.

SS staff would organize the prisoners into a queue near the entrance and the prisoners waited patiently to have their photographs taken. There was even a camera placed near to the corner of the room and this was then covered with a dark blanket to make it appear as if this was a legitimate. One by one, the prisoners were taken down the stairs and into the chamber.

And then the door was closed behind them. Prisoners positioned themselves in front of the camera as if they were stood waiting for the flash. Then an executioner shot them with a bullet to the neck. Death was mostly instant. Following this, members of the Sonderkommando, the cleanup crews, waited in the mortuary next door.

And they were then tasked to quickly remove the body and then they quickly cleaned down blood and other traces of an execution before the next prisoner was brought to the chamber. Many were killed in this way. Inside this chamber, too, there was even a folding table which had a trap floor which was used for hangings and other executions.

It was in the basement of the crematoria, a purpose-built killing facility and room. The next shooting room inside Mauthausen worked in the same way as other camps. Prisoners were tricked into going to their deaths believing they were getting some form of treatment or care. In the case of the facility at Mauthausen, they genuinely believed they were going to simply have their photographs taken for the camp records.

But instead, an executioner armed with his pistol brought the lives of many inmates to an end. Thank you for watching. If you found this video interesting, maybe click subscribe. Once again, thank you so much for giving me your time to watch this video.