Postcard Binder - Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Paris 1945

Postcard Binder - Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Paris 1945

MAUTHAUSEN Plus jamais ca! - MAUTHAUSEN - Never again!

Binder containing 25 photograph postcards from the Mauthausen concentration camp  while it was being run by the Nazis [some of the postcards were photographed on the day the camp was liberated and depict the horrifying sight revealed to the Allies when they entered the camp]. Explanation in French, German and Russian on the reverse. Paris, 1945. Complete binder. Rare.

The postcards show the camp gate with the SS emblem - an eagle with a swatika, watch towers, harsh pictures of inmates handcuffed while being abused, crematoriums, muselmann, hanging poles, corpses, SS soldiers [Himmler and his men], and more. Most of the postcards in the binder are harsh to view.

A picture of a prisoner in an inmate's uniform against a background of smoke rising from the camp is on the cover, by Bernard Albert. On the back of the binding, an inmate in uniform with a description of the various garments. Introduction in French about the structure of the camp, how it was run and the number of people killed, according to country of origin.

The Mauthausen Concentration Camp [Konzentrationslager Mauthausen] in Upper Austria was mainly used for forced labor, it was established in 1938 next to the city of Mauthausen and was initially used for the incarceration of opponents of Nazism. Beginning in 1941, its purpose changed and the Nazis started to imprison many Jews there, mainly from communities in Czechoslovakia and Holland. 38,000 Jews were murdered in the camp, most died of forced labor. The camp was liberated in May of 1945 and was one of the last liberated by the US army.

Very fine condition.