Press Booklet MAUTHAUSEN - TWO LIVES

FRANZ HACKL
Franz Hackl was born in 1927 and completed an apprenticeship as a locksmith in the Gusen
quarry at the SS Company German Earth and Stone Works from March 1942 to February
1945. The Gusen quarry was part of the Mauthausen concentration camp, which meant that
Franz Hackl had close contact with the prisoners and observed everyday life in the concentration
camp at close quarters. In February 1945, he was drafted into the German Wehrmacht,
but did not have to serve after all. In the interview, he describes his experiences, which he had
to go through at the tender age of 17, and how he, later on, was able to come to terms with
what he had experienced. Authentic, stirring, moving, shocking, but also optimistic about the
future – Franz Hackl wants to help ensure that what happened will not forgotten. He wants to
keep the atrocities of World War II in our minds in order for them to never be repeated again.
12