[1] Zeireis replaced Albert Sauer as commandant of Mauthausen on 9 February 1939 by order of Theodor Eicke, Inspector of Concentration Camps.

[2] Ziereis fled with his wife on 3 May 1945, but was tracked down 100 miles (160 km) away by an American army unit on 23 May 1945.

As he attempted to escape, American soldiers proceeded to shoot Ziereis three times in the stomach and brought him to a U.S. military hospital set up at the former Gusen I concentration camp.

[3] Ziereis died shortly after interrogation by a former inmate of Mauthausen, socialist Hans Maršálek.

[4] In a confession, he had implicated several leading perpetrators at the camp, including Eduard Krebsbach, who had ordered the building of the gas chamber at Mauthausen, Erich Wasicky, who had built the gas van there, and Gauleiter August Eigruber, who was chiefly responsible for the conditions since the area fell under his jurisdiction.