Today's commemoration gathered some 8,000 people from about 40 countries, including a Croatian delegation led by parliamentary officials, Croatian diplomats in Austria as well as Croatian anti-fascist fighters.
The Mauthausen camp was established shortly after Germany annexed Austria in March 1938. It was built near an abandoned stone quarry, along the Danube River, about three miles from the town of Mauthausen, some 20 kilometres southeast of Linz.
An estimated 200,000 prisoners passed through Mauthausen between 1938 and May 1945 with a half of them dying there. On May 5 1945, units of the American 11th Armor Division liberated the main Mauthausen camp.
In 2001, Croatian representatives unveiled a plaque commemorating Croat prisoners killed at the Mauthausen concentration camp. The plaque, placed at at the Mauthausen "Wall of Tears", bears an inscription in Croatian and German commemorating Croats killed at the camp.