Mühlviertel Rabbit Hunt: Nazi Manhunt for Escaped Soviet Prisoners of War in 1945

he Mühlviertel Rabbit Hunt was one of the most brutal massacres of escaped Soviet prisoners of war during the final months of the Second World War. In February 1945, as the Third Reich was collapsing and Allied forces closed in from all sides, one of the most brutal episodes of the Holocaust and the Second World War unfolded in the forests of Upper Austria. It would later become known as the Mühlviertel Rabbit Hunt — a systematic manhunt for nearly 500 escaped Soviet prisoners of war from Mauthausen concentration camp. These men had been held in Block 20, the camp’s infamous “death block.” Deported under Wilhelm Keitel’s secret Action Kugel decree, thousands of Soviet officers were erased from official records and condemned to starvation, torture, and execution. Stripped of their names and rights under international law, they endured extreme deprivation — sleeping on bare floors, beaten daily, and given food only every few days. Thousands perished before February 1945. Facing certain death, 419 prisoners launched a desperate breakout on the night of 2 February 1945. Using fire extinguishers, stones, and wet blankets to short-circuit electrified fences, they overwhelmed guards and escaped into the freezing countryside. What followed was not only an SS-led pursuit. Local police, Volkssturm militia, Hitler Youth members, and ordinary civilians joined the hunt. The mayor ordered the escapees shot on sight. Prisoners were dragged from barns, stabbed, shot, or killed with axes. Within 24 hours, hundreds were dead. By the end of the manhunt, only 11 men survived. The massacre did not go entirely unpunished. Regional Nazi leader August Eigruber was tried and executed in 1947. Camp commandant Franz Ziereis was captured and died shortly after liberation. The Mühlviertel Rabbit Hunt remains one of the starkest examples of how ideology, propaganda, and total war turned not only SS guards but also civilians into participants in mass murder.This episode is part of the series The Forgotten Massacres of Defenseless Soldiers in WWII.Watch the full documentary and explore hundreds of historical films at:WorldHistory.tv