ABSTRACT
The transfer westwards of Mauthausen's subsidiaries in the east was part of the general order given by Ziereis on 31 March for the evacuation not only of Nebenlager in the Vienna area but also those at Melk and St Ägyd. The evacuation was entrusted to Streitwieser, who had been given command of several Kommandos in the Vienna area. 1 The inmates of these Kommandos were congregated at Hinterbrühl, south of Vienna, and on the following morning, Easter Sunday, Streitwieser was ready to march them to Mauthausen. Before leaving, on the Saturday night, he ordered a number of prisoner-physicians to administer benzene injections to the 54 prisoners who were unable to walk. Every one of them refused, but Streitwieser knew that there would always be willing hands at some lower level of humanity to do his bidding. Indeed, the German red-triangle Georg Goessl, who was Kapo of the local Revier, did not refuse the order, while the male nurse Karl Sasko, a Green from Vienna, offered his assistance. The injections were supposed to be intracardiac, but Goessl and Sasko lacked experience: most of the time they injected the benzene into the lungs, causing the victim a long and atrocious agony. Goessl cleaned up his mess by strangling those who lingered.
