419 Escaped, Hunted to Death by Civilians: The Mühlviertel Rabbit Hunt
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From the cheers of the 1938 Anschluss to the genocidal war in the East, Nazi propaganda transformed entire societies into instruments of persecution. Nowhere was this more brutally exposed than in Mauthausen’s Block 20 — the camp’s secret death block for Soviet officers erased from official records.
In February 1945, 419 half-starved prisoners launched a desperate nighttime escape. What followed was not only an SS manhunt, but a civilian killing spree. Armed with axes, knives, and rifles, local militia members, Hitler Youth, and ordinary villagers hunted the fugitives across farms and forests in what became known as the Mühlviertel Rabbit Hunt.
Within days, nearly all were recaptured and murdered. Only eleven survived to see liberation.
This is the story of how ideology turned neighbors into executioners — and how one of the war’s last crimes was finally brought to justice.
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