Memorial Plaque in Memory of the Prisoners of the Loibl Concentration Camps

Between 1943 and 1945, two concentration camps existed north and south of the Loibl, in which prisoners from the Mauthausen concentration camp were forced to perform forced labor during the construction of the Loibl Tunnel. At least 39 men were murdered on-site at the Loibl, through executions after failed escape attempts, through mistreatment by guards, through medical experiments by the camp physician, and through failure to provide assistance after accidents or illnesses. A far greater number of prisoners were sent back to the Mauthausen concentration camp after they had become unable to work due to hunger and mistreatment. On the Austrian side, the concentration camp history of the Loibl was concealed for decades after May 1945. The memorial plaque at the northern tunnel portal, installed in the late 1960s, was the first and until the mid-1990s the only remembrance marker for the Nazi victims at the Loibl Pass in Austria.