Description:

WAFFEN-SS GUSEN CONCENTRATION CAMP GRAMOPHONE
A chilling find, a portable gramophone with ownership plate placing it in the SS Barracks at the notorious Gusen concentration camp, a sub-camp of Mauthausen near Linz, Austria. The 14 x 9 x 4.25 in. (closed) gramophone is built into a faux crocodile skin case with carrying handle. When opened, a small silvered engraved plate, original to the box, is revealed and it reads: ‘SS-Kaserne Gusen Waffen SS und Politzei Kommandantur' ('SS-Barracks Gusen Waffen-SS and Police Commandant's Office'). Present is a green felt-covered steel turntable, along with a removable arm and stylus. The stylus picks up vibrations from the grooves in a 78 RPM record and transmits them to a circular mica. Those vibrations, now sounds, echo down the arm into a sound box under the turntable. The sound box has openings toward the rear of the carrying case which further echo the transmitted sound. The turntable is also fitted with a brake and a crank is provided to wind-up the gramophone which is in excellent working order. The stylus and the arm are two separate parts which break-down for storage in the rear of the case. This piece is far more threatening than most would think. Gramophones like this were used not only to entertain the SS troops, but were also at times used to distract prisoners during 'selection' or used to 'exercise' them for the same reason. Gusen was primarily populated by Polish prisoners, but there were also large numbers of Spanish Republicans, Soviet citizens, and Italians. Initially, prisoners worked in nearby quarries, producing granite which was sold by the SS company DEST. Conditions were worse than at the Mauthausen main camp due to the camp's purpose of extermination through labor. The life expectancy of prisoners was as short as six months, and at least 35,000 people died there from forced labor, starvation, and mass executions. Some prisoners, no longer capable of hard labor, were sent from Mauthausen to Gusen in order to be killed. At Gusen, the SS forced arriving prisoners to run in order to test their fitness. Those unable to perform the task sufficiently well were immediately killed, a fate that befell 3,000 of the first 10,000 prisoners there.

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November 13, 2025 10:00 AM EST
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $99 $10
$100 $499 $20
$500 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $999,999 $10,000
$1,000,000 $1,999,999 $50,000
$2,000,000 + $100,000