Walk over to the roller and listen to the testimonies of Josef and Hans describing their first impressions of the camp, and the roller being in use.
Josef Klat was born in Vienna in 1922. His parents had migrated to Vienna from Czechoslovakia. Because Klat was part of the communist-Czech resistance movement, the Nazis arrested him and sent him to the concentration camp at Mauthausen. After the liberation, Josef returned to Vienna. Later he and his family moved to Mariánské Lázně (Czechoslovakia). He often returned to Mauthausen and contributed manyfold to the memorial’s development.
Hans Maršálek was born in Vienna in 1914. Like Josef, Hans was part of the communist-Czech resistance movement. As a prisoner in Mauthausen concentration camp, he was a camp clerk in the main camp. After the war, Hans returned to Vienna. For decades, he played a major part in developing the memorial site and the archive. He published one of the first and most comprehensive books on the history of Mauthausen concentration camp.