Gunskirchen, April 28, 1945: A Death March Exhibition at the House of Austrian History

This entry details the arrival of the last of three death marches of Hungarian-Jewish forced laborers at the Waldlager Gunskirchen near Wels on April 28, 1945. The camp held approximately 18,000 people under catastrophic conditions, and thousands would perish in the following days before liberation by the US Army. It highlights the horrific scene that greeted the liberators and the immense suffering of the victims.

On April 28, 1945, the final of three death marches involving Hungarian-Jewish forced laborers reached the Waldlager Gunskirchen, approximately 50 kilometers away from Mauthausen. This site was crammed with around 18,000 individuals enduring dire circumstances, with thousands succumbing in the ensuing days. The liberation of Gunskirchen by the US Army on May 4th and 5th, 1945, revealed an "unbelievable picture of horror." Survivor Zvi Bar-Niv recalled Gunskirchen as an "incredible place" with "dead lying everywhere around, those who were still alive were also more dead than alive; the stench was unbearable." Towards the end of the war, thousands of Hungarian-Jewish forced laborers were driven across eastern Austria towards Mauthausen, which remained one of the German Reich's final extermination centers and had not yet been liberated. By mid-April, the concentration camp was completely overcrowded. Consequently, the death marches, with individuals who had already walked hundreds of kilometers and were severely emaciated, were redirected to the Gunskirchen camp near Wels. The stretch between Mauthausen and Gunskirchen is recognized as the deadliest section of these death marches. The content is sourced from the catalog '41 Tage. Kriegsende 1945 – Verdichtung der Gewalt' by Dieter A. Binder, Georg Hoffmann, Monika Sommer, and Heidemarie Uhl.