ABSTRACT
Mauthausen may have been the worst concentration camp of them all, and that is where many prisoners of war were sent to be executed. In fact, more American military personnel were sent to this camp and killed than to any other except Berga. Moreover, United States officials were aware that Americans were sent to Mauthausen, but little was done either to secure their release or hold the perpetrators of crimes against them responsible. In early September 1944, a group of American paratroopers, perhaps as many as 48, were brought to Mauthausen. The Americans were unaware they were going to be executed, according to a Polish prisoner who was in Mauthausen at the time. The signs on the door they entered said they were going to the bath.
