The camps of Mauthausen-Gusen were the last to be liberated during the World War II. The 11th Armored Division has a proud and distinguished heritage. It underwent combat training at Camp Polk and Camp Barkeley, Tex., desert maneuvers at Camp Ibis, Calif., and combat readiness training at Camp Cooke, Calif., until June 1944. The remaining prisoners were rushed to build a line of granite anti-tank obstacles to the east of Mauthausen. Liberation and post-war heritage Tanks of U.S. 11th Armored Division entering the Mauthausen concentration camp; banner in Spanish reads "Antifascist Spaniards greet the forces of liberation". Mauthausen-Gusen was part of a network of nearly 100 camps inside Austria, and thousands around Europe, at which six million Jews and millions of other innocent civilians were murdered simply for their religion, ethnic background, political beliefs, or […] Memorial. Because of that the Polish, Soviet and French prisoners prepared a plan for an assault on the barracks of the SS guards in order to seize the arms necessary to put up a fight. Advance of Combat Command A and B, 11th Armored Division, between 1st and 6th May 1945. On 3 May the SS and other guards started to prepare for evacuation of the camp. Stanisław Dobosiewicz, the author of a monumental monograph of the Mauthausen-Gusen complex explains that one of the possible causes of the failure of the German plan was that the Polish prisoners managed to cut the fuse wires. The next day, the 11th Armored Division entered the Mauthausen concentration camp. Item View The remnants of several German divisions indeed assaulted the Mauthausen sub-camp, but were repelled by the prisoners who took over the camp. Co., 41st Armored Regiment and then in Troop D, 41st Cavalry after the reorganization. The U.S. Current results range from 1942 to 1997. After that, between 1946 and 1947, the camps were unguarded and many furnishings and facilities of the camp were dismantled, both by the Red Army and by the local population. Killed 614 7. In February 2009 the memorial was vandalized by persons unknown, who defaced a section of the wall with anti-Islamic graffiti. He first served in Rcn. Wounded 2,562 8. Further units, including the 11th Armored Division of the Third Army, arrived in the succeeding days. Edgar Edelsack was 21 when he arrived at the Mauthausen camp as part of the 11th Armored Division in Gen. Patton's 3rd Army. ;Color: Countryside from moving tank. Launching an attack from Neufchâteau, Belgium, 30 December, the 11th defended the highway to Basto… Arrived ETO 5 October 1944 3. Screened by harassing artillery fire, the division was relieved the next day by the 17th Airborne Div. 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW The Thunderbolt Division - 11th Armored -- had tackled two ace Nazi divisions, punched them back six miles in five freezing days, cleared 30 square miles of rugged terrain, liberated more than a dozen towns and ended the threat to the supply route. Ross Snowdon is a veteran of the 11th Armored Division. The inmates unable to cope with the hard labour and malnutrition were exterminated in large numbers to free space for newly-arrived evacuation transports from other camps, including most of the sub-camps of Mauthausen-Gusen located in eastern Austria. Future Congressional Medal of Honor winner Tibor "Ted" Rubin was imprisoned there as a young teenager; a Hungarian Jew, he vowed to join the U.S. Army upon his liberation and later did just that, distinguishing himself in the Korean War as a corporal in the 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. This copy belonged to Ray Buch, a Sergeant in the Unit during World War II, who later served as unit historian. In the words of Mrs. Clarke "Without the 11th Armored Division, none of us would be here." The police officer in charge of the unit accepted the "inmate self-government" as the camp's highest authority and Martin Gerken, until then the highest-ranking kapo prisoner in the Gusen's administration (in the rank of Lagerälteste, or the Camp's Elder), became the new de facto commander. I remember that there were piles and piles of corpses there—Charles Torluccio. On May 5, 1945, the 11th arrived in Gusen, which had originally been a subcamp of Mauthausen. On May 7, other units of the 11th Armored Division entered Mauthausen. He attempted to create an International Prisoner Committee that would become a provisional governing body of the camp until it was liberated by one of the approaching armies, but he was openly accused of co-operation with the SS and the plan failed. On May 5, the 11th took the Austrian city of Linz, and a few days later met up with advancing Soviet forces. Seventy-five years ago, the 11th Armored Division of the U.S. 3rd Army liberated the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camps. During the final months before liberation, the camp's commander Franz Ziereis prepared for its defence against a possible Soviet offensive. Washington, DC 20024-2126 On 28 April, under cover of a fictional air-raid alarm, some 22,000 prisoners of Gusen were rushed into the tunnels. Object Commemorative poster of the 11th Armored Division featuring colored depictions of the Unit's badges, shields, crests, and symbols. Missing 40 9. In order to cope with this situation to some degree, the 11th Armored Division reverted to the resources of military units stationed nearby, healthy prisoners and the local population. Cheer the soldiers reacted in shock and disbelief to the east of Mauthausen forces! 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