At least 400 of the 680 young Dutch Jews sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria by the Nazis during the past year have died from malnutrition and mistreatment, it was disclosed today by Dutch circles here.
Blamed for the high mortality rate are the extremely hard labor, cruel mistreatment, and inadequate food meted out to the Jewish prisoners. Attempts by the families of the victims to alleviate conditions of virtual starvation were thwarted by the Nazi authorities who forbade them to send any food parcels to the camp. Since the ages of those confined in the camp ranged from 18 to 35 the death rate is abnormally high even for persons living under adverse health and sanitary conditions.
The first group of 350 were sent there in February after the riots by non-Jews protesting the anti-Jewish laws in Holland. Another 100 arrived in May and a third contingent of 230 came in June. By the end of July, about 130 of the total number had already died and this figure rose to 400 by October. It has been extremely difficult to ascertain these figures up until now because the Nazis have clamped down a strict censorship on death notices from the camps. Neither the victims’ ashes nor their belongings are sent back home.
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