As the Soviet army approached Auschwitz in mid-January 1945, Peter van Pels was sent on one of the many death marches used to clear the camp. On 25 January 1945, Peter van Pels arrived at Mauthausen camp. After several days of quarantine, Peter was transported to Melk camp on 29 January 1945.^[1]

Mauthausen

Melk camp was one of the sub-camps of Mauthausen concentration camp.^[2] Mauthausen had been established in 1938 as a camp for male prisoners. They had to perform extremely hard forced labour in the area's stone quarries. The camp was run by camp commander and ss-Standartenführer Franz Ziereis (1905-1945).^[3]

Mauthausen was a camp of the toughest category. Due to the harsh regime and hard work in the quarries, mortality rates were extremely high. It was a combination of labour and extermination. The prisoners literally worked themselves to death. The diet was calculated to give a life expectancy of three to four months. Some 190,000 people were deported to Mauthausen, over 90,000 of whom died.^[4]

Melk

Melk camp was established as a concentration camp for male prisoners on 21 April 1944. Melk was located in a former barracks, perched on the south-western edge of the town of Melk on the banks of the Danube. The camp commander was Julius Ludolph (1893-1947). The camp held an average of seven thousand prisoners of various nationalities. There were a striking number of young Jewish men under the age of 20 in Melk.^[5]

The prisoners had to work as forced labourers on a project code-named Quarz, which involved the prisoners building an underground factory in a mountain to produce machine parts for tanks and aircraft. Due to the increase in Allied air raids in late 1943, aircraft and weapons factories were moved to secret underground locations so that war production could continue.^[6]

With the arrival of the 29 January 1945 transport from Mauthausen, Melk had 10,314 prisoners. Between January and April 1945, 3106 people died here due to illness, accidents, beatings, or being shot. In one year, about 5,000 of the approximately 15,000 prisoners in Melk camp died.^[7]

Heavy forced labour

It was mainly the extremely hard forced labour to which many prisoners succumbed. In three shifts, the prisoners worked day and night drilling, excavating and shoring up the tunnel corridors, draining (quartz) sand, manufacturing the beams needed to shore up the tunnels, loading and unloading building materials and other construction work in the huge factory complex.^[8]

The prisoners worked under the supervision of SS officers, kapos and civilian workers. Each day, the prisoners attended roll call before marching downhill out of the camp in blocks of five by five under the guard of SS officers. The prisoners were forced to march in a line arm-in-arm to prevent anyone from escaping. If any of them made an escape attempt, the whole row was shot.^[8]

Medical care was non-existent in Melk. The sick prisoners were left to fend for themselves and in some cases gassed or shot.^[9]

Evacuation

In early April 1945, as the Soviet army drew ever closer and was about to capture Vienna, Melk camp was evacuated in great haste. On 11 April 1945, the sick from the infirmary and the young men from the camp were sent back to Mauthausen by train. Peter van Pels was also among them.^[10]

On 5 May 1945, a reconnaissance unit of the US Third Army entered Mauthausen camp and Mauthausen was liberated. According to the Mauthausen death book, Peter van Pels died on 10 May 1945.^[11]