# Gunskirchen > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Gunskirchen > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Gunskirchen.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunskirchen > Source revision: 1354788169 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Municipality in Upper Austria, Austria Gunskirchen Municipality Coat of arms Gunskirchen Location within Austria Coordinates: 48°08′04″N 13°56′35″E / 48.13444°N 13.94306°E / 48.13444; 13.94306 Country Austria State Upper Austria District Wels-Land Government • Mayor Christian Schöffmann (ÖVP) Area [1] • Total 36.22 km2 (13.98 sq mi) Elevation 352 m (1,155 ft) Population (2018-01-01)[2] • Total 6,037 • Density 166.7/km2 (431.7/sq mi) Time zone UTC+1 (CET) • Summer (DST) UTC+2 (CEST) Postal code 4623 Area code 07246 Vehicle registration WL Website www.gunskirchen.com **Gunskirchen** is a town in the [Austrian](/source/Austria) state of [Upper Austria](/source/Upper_Austria). ## Geography Gunskirchen lies in the [Hausruckviertel](/source/Hausruckviertel). About 11 percent of the municipality is forest, and 78 percent is farmland. Internal combustion engine maker [Rotax](/source/Rotax) has been headquartered at Gunskirchen since 1947. ## History ### World War II During [World War II](/source/World_War_II) one of the sub-camps of the [Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp](/source/Mauthausen_concentration_camp) was located in the village. The camp was rather short-lived. In December 1944, construction for the Gunskirchen camp began. It was planned to house several hundred [slave labourers](/source/Forced_labour_in_Germany_during_World_War_II). When the camp was opened in April 1945, however, thousands of prisoners evacuated on [death marches](/source/Death_marches_(Holocaust)) from Mauthausen started to flood Gunskirchen. [Dr. Edith Eger](/source/Edith_Eger) was among them.[3] In these overcrowded conditions, diseases such as [typhus](/source/Typhus) and [dysentery](/source/Dysentery) spread rapidly through the starving and weakened camp population. The prisoners were—with the exception of 400 [political prisoners](/source/Political_prisoner)—[Jews](/source/Jew) from [Hungary](/source/Hungary) whom the [Germans](/source/Nazi_Germany) had forced to march on foot from their homeland to Austria, where they were to be used for forced labour. Some 17,000 [Hungarian Jews](/source/Hungarian_Jews) reportedly passed through the Gunskirchen camp. On May 4, 1945, troops of [71st Infantry Division](/source/71st_Infantry_Division_(United_States)) and segregated [761st Tank Battalion](/source/761st_Tank_Battalion) liberated Gunskirchen. When troops entered the camp, they learned that the [SS](/source/Schutzstaffel) guards had fled the corpse-littered camp days before. Some 15,000 prisoners were still in the camp. In the months following the liberation, some 1,500 former prisoners died as a consequence of their mistreatment by the [Nazis](/source/Nazism). They were buried in the cemetery in nearby Wels.[4] One member of the 71st Infantry recounted his first impressions of Gunskirchen: As we entered the camp, the living skeletons still able to walk crowded around us and, though we wanted to drive farther into the place, the milling, pressing crowd wouldn't let us. It is not an exaggeration to say that almost every inmate was insane with hunger. Just the sight of an American brought cheers, groans and shrieks. People crowded around to touch an American, to touch the jeep, to kiss our arms—perhaps just to make sure that it was true. The people who couldn't walk crawled out toward our jeep. Those who couldn't even crawl propped themselves up on an elbow, and somehow, through all their pain and suffering, revealed through their eyes the gratitude, the joy they felt at the arrival of Americans.--Capt. J. D. Pletcher[5] The American soldiers immediately began requisitioning supplies and transportation from the local town to provide the prisoners with food and water. The 71st Infantry Division was recognized as a liberating unit by the [United States Army Center of Military History](/source/United_States_Army_Center_of_Military_History) and the [United States Holocaust Memorial Museum](/source/United_States_Holocaust_Memorial_Museum) in 1988. ## See also - [The Holocaust](/source/The_Holocaust) - [György Bálint](/source/Gy%C3%B6rgy_B%C3%A1lint) (originally surname Braun; 1919–2020), Hungarian [horticulturist](/source/Horticulturist), [Candidate of Agricultural Sciences](/source/Candidate_of_Sciences), journalist, author, and politician who served as an [MP](/source/National_Assembly_(Hungary)). ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["Dauersiedlungsraum der Gemeinden Politischen Bezirke und Bundesländer - Gebietsstand 1.1.2018"](http://www.statistik.at/web_de/klassifikationen/regionale_gliederungen/dauersiedlungsraum/index.html) (in German). Statistics Austria. Retrieved 10 March 2019. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["Einwohnerzahl 1.1.2018 nach Gemeinden mit Status, Gebietsstand 1.1.2018"](https://www.statistik.at/web_de/klassifikationen/regionale_gliederungen/gemeinden/index.html) (in German). Statistics Austria. Retrieved 9 March 2019. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** ["Edith Eger: The Choice - Embrace the Possible"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFrYtPNRE5M&ab_channel=HeroRoundTable). *[YouTube](/source/YouTube)*. 24 June 2018. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Lugmayr-Frantz, Charlotte. ["JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry- Stadtfriedhof Wels"](https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbrshow.php?ID=AUS-04029). *Jewishgen*. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** [U.S. Army](/source/United_States_Army) [1945]. "[The Seventy-first Came…to Gunskirchen Lager](http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Gunskirchen.html)". Augsburg. ## External links - [Official site](http://www.gunskirchen.com) - [Autobiography of Andrew L. Reeves](http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves/alr.pdf) (liberated from Gunskirchen by the 71st Division in 1945) Wikimedia Commons has media related to [Gunskirchen](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Gunskirchen). v t e Municipalities in the district of Wels-Land Aichkirchen Bachmanning Bad Wimsbach-Neydharting Buchkirchen Eberstalzell Edt bei Lambach Fischlham Gunskirchen Holzhausen Krenglbach Lambach Marchtrenk Neukirchen bei Lambach Offenhausen Pennewang Pichl bei Wels Sattledt Schleißheim Sipbachzell Stadl-Paura Steinerkirchen an der Traun Steinhaus Thalheim bei Wels Weißkirchen an der Traun Authority control databases International VIAF GND WorldCat National United States Israel Other Yale LUX --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Gunskirchen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunskirchen) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunskirchen?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.