One of the most brutal concentration camps of the Third Reich was Mauthausen-Gusen.
Inside of these camps, prisoners were forced to conduct back breaking slave labour under
horrific conditions which caused many thousands of deaths.
Mauthausen and its sub camps contained quarries, munition factories, mines and other plants
which were used in the German war effort assembling military equipment and even aircraft.
The conditions at Mauthausen were more severe than many other camps, and it’s estimated
that half of the 190,000 people who were sent there were killed.
One of the largest subcamps was known as Gusen, and it was found in Upper Austria.
It was mostly populated to begin with by Polish prisoners, but inside of Gusen at least 35,000
people died.
Then the camp was liberated by the American 11th Armoured Division on the 5th May 1945,
there was chaos and many people there were dying and suffering, and many former guards
and kapos were killed in retribution.
Gusen was truly hell on earth, and inside of the camp one man who was executed there
was known as ‘The Saint of Gusen,’ for his actions, but he was killed in a terrible
way.
Join us today as we look at the brutal execution of the saint of Gusen, and remember to support
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As mentioned conditions at Gusen were worse than they were even at Mauthausen the main
camp.
In 1940 the average life expectancy of prisoners was 6 months, and they weighed on average
40kg.
Typhus epidemics broke out which killed many prisoners, and the intention of the camp was
for prisoners to work until they were exterminated through labour.
They were either killed by being worked too hard, or those who could not work any more
were executed.
Prisoners were transported there throughout the Second World War, and around 7000 prisoners
were kept at all times until overcrowding occurred despite the high death rates.
Prisoners were counted twice a day at roll call, and during this often executions of
prisoners occurred.
The inmates faced starvation and beatings by the guards and kapos and were deprived
of basic facilities such as functioning toilets and sinks.
Guarding them were watchtowers equipped with machine guns ready to be turned on any prisoner
who made an attempt to escape.
Some of the kapos inside of Gusen were infamous for their brutality, for example one named
Wolf executed prisoners by hanging them, and then also stamping on their bodies.
Another took part in gassing inmates.
Many prisoners who could not conduct hard labour any more were sent to Gusen to be killed.
The SS forced prisoners to run to test their fitness, and those who could not were killed
immediately.
Many were also beaten to death, and there was even a new execution method developed
there called the Death Bath.
Here prisoners were forced to stand under freezing cold showers until they died which
could take up to two hours.
Inside of these the drains got blocked and many also drowned from the water.
But inside of Gusen, a man was killed in barbaric ways by the cruelty of the SS guards who worked
there.
Doctor Johann Gruber was a teacher and a Catholic priest who became known as ‘The Saint of
Gusen,’ for his time there.
In 1910 he became a priest and served near to Linz, Hitler’s home town.
He fell foul of the Nazi authorities like many Austrian priests did, following the Anschluss
and the annexation of the country into Hitler’s empire.
In 1938, Gruber was sacked from his job and was then imprisoned by the Nazis who accused
him of abusing a number of his pupils.
The reality of the situation was that he had actually been arrested for his opposition
and disgust at the occupying Nazi forces and the National Socialist regime which was imposed
on Austria.
Whilst he was arrested and held in prison, the Nazis began a smear campaign against him
and this is where the rumours about him came.
He was sacked as a priest and a lecturer, and was then sent to prison at Linz and Garsten
from 1938 to 1939 to await his trial.
Witnesses came forward to confirm the allegations and these were put under pressure by the Nazis
to falsely testify against him.
Following these he was then sent to Dachau Concentration Camp and then he was transferred
to Gusen in 1940.
The Vatican did try to intervene and get the treatment of Catholic priests inside of concentration
camps much more lenient, and a number of priests were transferred from Gusen to Dachau where
things were slightly better.
But Johann Gruber volunteered to stay at Gusen to help his fellow Polish prisoners.
As he was considered a very prominent priest in Austria, he was given some good privileges
inside of Gusen by the SS.
He used this to help a number of the poorest prisoners there, and he became a valuable
member of the camp’s daily life.
He was an organiser, and he helped to set up a school inside of the camp to educate
Polish children who had been sent there.
In 1941, he also became involved of the archeological command, after archaeological discoveries
were made as the railway was being made near to Gusen.
This allowed him to become familiar with many people outside of the camp, for example local
museums and other archaeologists, and through this he managed to get his friends on the
outside to smuggle money into the camp.
With this, it allowed him to the bribe SS guards and Kapos for him to organise food
to be distributed within a number of inmates who were starving, and because of Johann Gruber’s
actions, he saved many lives of people who would otherwise have starved to death.
As well as smuggling money, along with a number of comrades, he also managed to smuggle information
out of Gusen about the camp and how it was being run.
He informed local people of the conditions and the executions that were being carried
out.
However Johann Gruber’s network were eventually betrayed and discovered, and he was discovered
by the camp commander of bribing guards and also providing food for starving inmates.
Because of this he was imprisoned in the camps prison, and he was tortured brutally for three
days.
Despite his valiantly and brave actions, he was breaking some very serious rules, and
the camp commandant had no remorse for him.
He was brutally beaten and was tortured to within an inch of his life.
Inside of his prison cell he was tortured constantly, and was eventually killed by the
SS and the Gestapo officers who brutalised him because of his actions.
It’s believed he gave over no further information of the people he worked with, but died because
of the torture.
But what happened next was truly horrifying.
Johann Gruber’s dead body was taken from the prison out into a nearby yard where a
tree was found.
Here the guards then hanged his corpse from a tree to act as a terrifying reminder to
the prisoners of Gusen not to break the rules and to abide by the rules of the camp.
His body was left for some time before it was then taken down.
The Nazis declared that he had died from taking his own life, but this was not the case and
after the Second World War the true story of Johann Gruber’s brutal death emerged.
It took around 60 years for the conviction against Gruber to be overturned by the courts.
Today he is considered the ‘Saint of Gusen,’ who’s actions managed to save the lives
of many of the starving and dying concentration camp victims.
In the brutal and terrifying conditions of Gusen, he was a shining light who gave people
hope and turned his attention to helping educate children despite their incarceration.
He was one of at least 25,000 people who died at Gusen through the starvation, forced labour
and mass execution.
It was a truly terrifying place to be imprisoned, and today Johann Gruber is remembered as the
Saint of Gusen.
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