“Stairs of Death” in the Mauthausen Quarry

Authors

Object ID

2014.1.319

Object Name

Postcard, Picture

Files

Content Warning

The Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection consists of images, documents, and artifacts related to the Holocaust. The collection contains materials that depict a number of topics that may be difficult for viewers to engage with, including: antisemitic descriptions, caricatures, and representation of Jewish people; Nazi imagery and ideology; descriptions and images of German ghettos; graphic images of the violence of the Holocaust; and the creation of the State of Israel. For more information, see our policy page.

Description

Front: Black and white photograph of a quarry with house in upper left side and small groupings of people throughout. Back: No handwriting or postage stamp. Printed message in French and German the upper lefthand corner, with a place for a stamp in the upper lefthand corner.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

Real-photo postcard showing the infamous "stairs of death" at Mauthausen. Many of the inmates at Mauthausen were worked to death in the granite quarry while receiving only starvation rations. Prisoners were divided into two groups: one that hacked the granite and the other that carried the 100-pound slabs up the 186 steep steps to the top of the quarry. Regardless of the real cause of death, for SS "doctors," the official version was always euphemized to conceal the reality of "life" in this category-three camp where prisoners were subject to "vernichtung durch arbeit" (extermination through work). For all prisoners life in Mauthausen meant "ruckkehr unerwunscht" (return not desired).

Dimensions

4 x 5 2/3"

Keywords

Mauthausen, Steps, Death, Quarry

Subcollection

Concentration

Recommended Citation

"“Stairs of Death” in the Mauthausen Quarry" (2016). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2014.1.319.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/577