Educational services

The tour starts at the Visitor Centre opposite the car park. The first stops are along the road below the camp wall, at the edge of the quarry and in the memorial park on the site of the former SS camp, before the tour enters the former prisoners’ camp. This route makes it possible to retrace the path taken by the prisoners, to engage with perpetrators’ perspectives and to discuss the perception of the concentration camp in society during the Nazi era. The confrontation with the perspectives of victims, perpetrators and their environment is a fundamental characteristic of the tour.

The education workers are specially qualified for tours of the Memorial. In their training, a particular emphasis is placed on interactive openness to visitors, so the tours offer a balance between informing the group about history and involving the group in a shared discussion about history’s significance.

Minimum age: 14

September to June: Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays at 1pm in German

Christmas holidays: 24.12.-26.12.2025, 31.12.2025-01.01.2026  

Holy Week, 14–18 April 2025: daily

July and August: daily at 1pm in German and English

The tour starts at the Visitor Centre opposite the car park. The first stops are along the road below the camp wall, at the edge of the quarry and in the memorial park on the site of the former SS camp, before the tour enters the former prisoners’ camp. This route makes it possible to retrace the path taken by the prisoners, to engage with perpetrators’ perspectives and to discuss the perception of the concentration camp in society during the Nazi era. The confrontation with the perspectives of victims, perpetrators and their environment is a fundamental characteristic of the tour.

The education workers are specially qualified for tours of the Memorial. In their training, a particular emphasis is placed on interactive openness to visitors, so the tours offer a balance between informing the group about history and involving the group in a shared discussion about history’s significance.

Minimum age: 14
Maximum group size: 26

Advance booking is required and possible until the 9th of the previous month at:
Shop - Mauthausen Memorial (mauthausen-memorial.org)

Information and enquiries:
Tel: +43 7238 2269-35 (Mon – Fri, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.)
Email: education@mauthausen-memorial.org

This education format combines a two-hour guided tour with an introductory session in the seminar room and a follow-up workshop to encourage discussion within the group. During the introductory session, the young visitors select from a range of visual materials and use these to formulate thoughts and ideas, which they then bring to the tour. In this way, they help to decide the focus of the tour. The programme ends with a follow-up discussion of the impressions gained on the tour.

Minimum age: 14

Maximum group size: 16 (total max. 48, up to 3 groups in parallel)

Advance booking is required and possible until the 9th of the previous month at:
Shop - Mauthausen Memorial (mauthausen-memorial.org)

Information and enquiries:
Tel: +43 7238 2269-35 (Mon – Fri, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.)
Email: education@mauthausen-memorial.org

The workshop takes place after the guided tour. It sheds light on the life stories of people who were imprisoned in the Mauthausen concentration camp, who were perpetrators, or who lived near the camp. Pupils in grades 8 to 10 work in small groups, selecting a life story and compiling it in the form of a biographical puzzle with texts and images. For students in grades 11 and above, we provide short biographies from which the small groups select one and discuss it using guided questions; the groups then share their thoughts about the life stories as part of a group puzzle. This biographical approach is particularly suitable for highlighting the human dimension of history, providing an in-depth addition to the guided tour.

Duration: 4 hours including a half-hour break
Minimum age: 14
Maximum group size: 16 (total max. 48, up to 3 groups in parallel)

Advance booking is required and possible until the 9th of the previous month at:
Shop - Mauthausen Memorial (mauthausen-memorial.org)

Information and enquiries:
Tel: +43 7238 2269-35 (Mon – Fri, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.)
Email: education@mauthausen-memorial.org

Mauthausen. A small town on the Danube known far beyond Austria’s borders because of its Nazi past. Gusen. Likewise a small town on the Danube, but one hardly anyone has heard of. While after 1945 a memorial site was created at the former ‘main camp’ of Mauthausen, the Gusen ‘branch camp’ of equal size, lying four kilometres away, almost completely vanished from public memory. The combined tour Mauthausen – Gusen starts in Mauthausen with an exploration of the history of the Nazi concentration camps. In Gusen, focus then moves to the history after 1945 and to the struggle to find adequate forms of memory.

Minimum age: 16

Maximum group size: 16 (up to 3 groups at once)

A bus or own car is needed for travel between Mauthausen and Gusen.

Advance booking required:
Shop - Mauthausen Memorial (mauthausen-memorial.org)

Information and inquiries:
Tel: +43 7238 2269-35 (Mo – Fr, 9:00 am to 12:00 pm)
Email: education@mauthausen-memorial.org 

Individual visitors

Every hour on the hour, the ORF III documentary “The Mauthausen Concentration Camp” is screened in the film rooms at the Visitor Center.

Minimum age: 14
No advance booking required.

Groups

On request we will organise screenings of the ORF III documentary “The Mauthausen Concentration Camp” for groups in the film rooms at the Visitor Center.

Minimum age: 14

Advance booking required:
Tel: +43 7238 2269-35 (Mo – Fr, 9am to 12pm)
Email: education@mauthausen-memorial.org

Download the app IWalk - USC Shoah Foundation for free and let the IWalk Mauthausen Memorial: Vestiges of the Past guide you through the former concentration camp. Each stop looks at an object on site. Testimonies of time-witnesses, photos and questions encourage you to think about past, present and future.

The IWalk is an ideal resource to use in combination with other existing educational formats, such as guided tours workshops or the audio guide.
The IWalk can be done on site or remotely.
Using the platform IWitness teachers can see their students’ progress in the app.

This IWalk is a project by _erinnern.at_ and the USC Shoah Foundation in cooperation with Mauthausen Memorial and was curated by Marlene Wöckinger.

*English, German
Minimum age: 14
No advance booking required.

Audio guide

Sign board for the audio guide at the Mauthausen Memorial (photo credits: KZ-Gedenkstätte Mauthausen / Stephan Matyus)There are two options:

Virtual Guide

https://mm-tours.org/ Available in 12 languages*

Audio Guide

Audio guides are handed out from the beginning of March until the end of October until 3:00 pm, in wintertime until 1:30 pm.

Minimum age: 14
No advance booking required.

* German, English, French, Hebrew, Czech, Dutch, Turkish, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish

Gusen concentration camp ­– the site of the one of the biggest mass crimes committed by the Nazis in present-day Austria, a place of forced labour and the murder of tens of thousands of people from across Europe – disappeared from public memory almost completely in the decades after 1945. While the former Mauthausen concentration camp was turned into a memorial site, most of what remained of the Gusen camp was removed to make way for a housing estate. Now, the expansion of the Gusen Memorial marks the beginning of a new phase in the memory of the camp. The guided tour opens up new historical sites (roll call square, SS barracks, SS ornamental garden, stone crusher) to the public for the first time, exploring not only different aspects of the camp’s history but also postwar developments at the site. Turning to the present day, it raises questions about society’s responsibility for memory and remembrance.

Maximum group size: 26

Advance booking required:
Tel: +43 7238 2269-35 (Mo – Fr, 9am to 12pm)
Email: education@mauthausen-memorial.org

From April to October 2025, a public guided tour of Gusen is offered every Saturday from 11am to 1pm.

This guided tour primarily focus on the plots of land purchased in 2022 and the history of this area (1939 - 2024). The tour also includes a visit to the Memorial de Gusen, where the former crematorium is located. This site is now the central commemoration site of the Gusen Concentration Camp Memorial.

The guides are all specially trained educators. Our education training places great emphasis on encouraging interaction and openness among visitors. This results in tours that offer a balance of historical information and group discussion about what that history means.

Minimum age: 14

An advance registration is recommended and can be made on weekdays (Mo – ​Fr) from 9am to 12pm
by phone (+43 7238 2269-35) or by email (education@mauthausen-memorial.org).
The timeslots will be reserved until 15 minutes before the tour starts (3:45 pm) and will then be allocated to others if necessary.
Please check in on time at the information portal in the visitor center.

Rock crusher of former Gusen Concentration Camp (© Mauthausen Memorial / Bernhard Mühleder)

Use our Virtual Guide for your smartphone for free. Available in 12 languages*: https://mm-tours.org/.

* German, English, French, Hebrew, Czech, Dutch, Turkish, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish

Mauthausen. A small town on the Danube known far beyond Austria’s borders because of its Nazi past. Gusen. Likewise a small town on the Danube, but one hardly anyone has heard of. While after 1945 a memorial site was created at the former ‘main camp’ of Mauthausen, the Gusen ‘branch camp’ of equal size, lying four kilometres away, almost completely vanished from public memory. The combined tour Mauthausen – Gusen starts in Mauthausen with an exploration of the history of the Nazi concentration camps. In Gusen, focus then moves to the history after 1945 and to the struggle to find adequate forms of memory.

Minimum age: 16

Maximum group size: 16 (up to 3 groups at once)

A bus or own car is needed for travel between Mauthausen and Gusen.

Advance booking required:
Shop - Mauthausen Memorial (mauthausen-memorial.org)

Information and inquiries:
Tel: +43 7238 2269-35 (Mo – Fr, 9am to 12pm)
Email: education@mauthausen-memorial.org

Individual visitors and Groups

Gusen Audiowalk

The Audiowalk explores the submerged memory of a place that was the location of the Gusen I and II concentration camps during the Nazi dictatorship.

Audioweg Gusen (Foto: KZ-Gedenkstätte Mauthausen)

Minimum age: 14

Headsets for the Audiowalk must be reserved in advance by telephone and can be picked up from Gusen Memorial during opening hours (pick-up: March to October until 1:45 pm (return by 4:45 pm); winter months until 12:45 pm (return by 3:45 pm)).

Advance booking required:
Tel: +43 7238 2269-35 (Mo – Fr, 9am to 12pm)
EMail: education@mauthausen-memorial.org

Tours with advance booking at museum@utanet.at or 004361 33 56 01

More detailed information can be found on the website of the Zeitgeschichte Museum Ebensee.

The Mauthausen Committee Austria offers an accompanying programme at numerous locations of the former satellite camps: further information