Steyr Forced Labor

1,437 Records

Holocaust · Forced Laborers · Prisoners · Europe (multiple)

Background

by Joyce Field

Jewish and non-Jewish forced laborers held in Vienna at the Saurer Werke were transferred to a Mauthausen sub-camp, Steyr.  193 laborers were considered too sick to be transferred; the remainder were sent.

The Introduction to the datafile "Mauthausen/Gusen Death Book", provides a brief summary of Mauthausen.  There Steyr is listed as an armaments plant, which used 1,791 prisoners.  Considerable information on Mauthausen and its subcamps can be found at the Mauthausen Memorial.  In December 1944, there were 72,825 registered inmates in Mauthausen, more than 62,000 of whom were in the satellite camps.  In March 1945, before the liberation of the main camp, there were more than 40 sub-camps, or satellite camps.

The first camps were for construction.  Next were armaments facilities.

"The systematic establishment of armaments factories in the Linz and Vienna regions led to the formation of a new type of satellite camp in which the inmates were involved in the construction of production facilities and then in production itself.  The first satellite camp established for the armaments industry was Steyr-Münichholz in March 1942.  Other satellite camps for the armaments industry were set up in the Vienna area (Schwechat) and Upper Austria (St. Valentin, Linz I and III, armaments production in Gusen I)."

As the industry became dependent on forced labor, it is conjectured that the living conditions of the forced laborers began to improve.

Fields Recorded

This database includes 1,437 records.  They include individuals from the following lists:

  • Died During the March -- 15 records
  • Too Ill to be Transferred -- 193 records
  • Transferred -- 1,079 records
  • Transferred - handwritten addendum -- 150 records

The ultimate fate of these persons is not given.

The fields for this database are as follows:

List Number
Page Number
Line Number
Category
Prisoner Number
Surname
Given Name
Date of Birth
Place of Birth
Profession
Date of Death
Comments

Researchers will find translations for German occupations at JewishGen's Info File: German Occupation Definitions — English Translations.

Acknowledgements

The information contained in this database was indexed from the files of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM File is RG 17.002M).

In addition, thanks to JewishGen Inc. for providing the website and database expertise to make this database accessible.  Special thanks to Warren Blatt and Michael Tobias for their continued contributions to Jewish genealogy.  Particular thanks to the Research Division headed by Joyce Field and to Nolan Altman, coordinator of Holocaust files.

Nolan Altman
December 2008

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