Franz Ziereis: Mauthausen Commandant Who Ran One of Nazi Germany’s Deadliest Camps

Franz Ziereis, commandant of Mauthausen concentration camp, oversaw one of the deadliest systems of forced labor and mass killing in Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Franz Ziereis was the longest-serving and most notorious commandant of the Mauthausen concentration camp, presiding over one of the deadliest camp systems in Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Born on 13 August 1905 in Munich, Ziereis came from a working-class background and initially trained as a merchant before joining the Reichswehr in the 1920s. Drawn to National Socialism, he left the army in 1936 and entered the SS, where he was absorbed into the SS-Totenkopfverbände (Death’s Head Units), the formation responsible for guarding and administering concentration camps. In February 1939, on the orders of Theodor Eicke, Ziereis was appointed commandant of Mauthausen, located near Linz in annexed Austria. Under his leadership, Mauthausen developed into a vast system of camps and subcamps, including Gusen, designed not for detention but for systematic destruction through forced labor, starvation, terror, and murder. Prisoners were worked to death in the granite quarries, forced to carry heavy stone blocks up the infamous “Stairs of Death,” while executions, beatings, hangings, gas killings, and medical neglect were routine. Ziereis exercised absolute authority over the camp and its subcamps, and witnesses later described him as personally involved in killings and brutal punishments. During his tenure, Mauthausen became one of the camps with the highest mortality rate in the Nazi system. Tens of thousands of Jews, political prisoners, Soviet POWs, Spanish Republicans, and other victims were murdered under his command. Ziereis worked closely with SS leadership figures, including Ernst Kaltenbrunner, and enforced a regime of extreme violence that turned Mauthausen into a symbol of industrialized cruelty. As Nazi Germany collapsed in May 1945, Ziereis fled the camp but was captured by U.S. forces. Shot while attempting to escape, he was interrogated and confessed in detail to the crimes committed at Mauthausen, including gas killings, executions, and torture. Franz Ziereis died of his wounds on 24 May 1945. His body was later publicly displayed by former prisoners—an unmistakable symbol of justice for one of the most brutal commandants of the Holocaust.This episode is part of the series The Nazi Camp Commandants.Watch the full documentary and explore hundreds of historical films at:WorldHistory.tv