concentration camp complex - National Archives and Records ...

ters. The 11th Armored Division after­action report also includes two
photographs of Russian Colonel Navadorov, liaison officer, speaking to
the Mauthausen inmates on May 8, 1945. XII Corps G­5 (civil affairs)
summaries for May 1945 (212.5.2) provide some details regarding con­
ditions at Mauthausen and “auxiliary” camps—policing measures, cases
of typhus, the surveying and evacuation of inmates, and uncovering of
subordinate camps. An after­action report of the 3rd Cavalry Group
Mechanized (CAVG­0.3) describes the entry of the 3rd Squadron into
Ebensee at noon on May 6, liberating a concentration camp of some
16,000 starving inmates. Immediate action was taken by the group com­
mander to provide food and medical attention.
Many Mauthausen sub­camps were evacuated spontaneously when their
German staff fled prior to the approach of the American and Soviet armies.
Annex B to the 71st Infantry Division G­2 Periodic Report, May 5, 1945 (371­
2.1), provides an unusually emotional, graphic account of the liberation of
the Gunskirchen Concentration Camp.“It is impossible to realize the feelings
of these 15,000 men, women and children upon our approach. The German
Army had been too busy running from our forces to attend to them so they
had received no food or water for four days . . . over 200 dying of starvation
and disease in two days.” A handwritten report (371­4) describes the condi­
tion of inmates at an unnamed “concentration camp for Jews between
Lambach and Wels, Austria” at the time of liberation on May 6, 1945.
III.59 Medical Units
The journal of the XII Corps Medical Section (212­26.1), May 6–20, 1945,
provides a useful, detailed overview of immediate relief efforts at
Mauthausen. Included are hourly reports of the movement to Mauthausen
of medical personnel and supplies, typhus and delousing teams, and camp
inspectors and reports of the 11th Armored Division surgeon on hospital
patients, types of communicable diseases, medical supplies and shortages,
and hospital setups. Also included are miscellaneous sanitation reports for
Mauthausen and Gusen, May 9–16, 1945. Operations reports for the 131st
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