ABSTRACT
The hope that springs eternal explains why one or two prisoners, against all odds, attempted to escape. It was hard enough to break out, but to survive in the alien countryside, amid a hostile people, was harder still. Even among the Spaniards, who in this as in other things were always alert to opportunity, only ten succeeded in escaping from Mauthausen, six in 1941 and four in 1942. 1 All those who escaped were relentlessly pursued. The SS called the pursuit the Hasenjagd, or hare-hunt, betraying their relish for the sport. Those who were recaptured were whipped or hanged or, more commonly, both.
