Back to the beginning: On 8th August 1938, the first 308 prisoners arrived in Mauthausen, accompanied by roughly 80 SS-guards. Months prior, August Eigruber, “Gauleiter” (regional head) of Upper Austria, announced the creation of Mauthausen concentration camp.
The Nazi newspaper Völkischer Beobachter (29th March 1938, p. 6) quoted him saying: [translation by the IWalk author] “[…] Us Upper-Austrians receive another, special award for our efforts during the fighting-time [orig. Kampfzeit = Nazi code for the time when the NSDAP was illegal in Austria]. Concentration Camp for System-tricksters. A Concentration Camp will be built in Upper Austria for all Austrian traitors [orig. Volksverräter].”
Source: Völkischer Beobachter, 29. March 1938 (Wiener Ausgabe), p. 6. ©ANNO/Österreichische Nationalbibliothek.
International newspapers reported on concentration camps as well; for example, the two excerpts from British newspapers below referenced Mauthausen days after the attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions in Vienna in November 1938:
“Sent to concentration camps. […]. Another trainload of a thousand young Jews has left Vienna for concentration camps – it is believed at Mauthausen and Buchenwald. […].” (The Scotsman, 14. November 1938, p.11)
“Swoop on Jews in Vienna. At Least 10,000 Arrests. […] Police assisted by S.S. Men are going from house to house arresting all male Jews under 60. Jews are also arrested in streets and in trams. They are taken to police headquarters, but are not told what their fate will be. It is understood that they are to be sent to the new Austrian concentration camp in the quarries of Mauthausen. […]“ (Yorkshire Evening Post, 10. November 1938, p.16)