During World War II one of the sub-camps of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp was located in the village.

When the camp was opened in April 1945, however, thousands of prisoners evacuated on death marches from Mauthausen started to flood Gunskirchen.

[3] In these overcrowded conditions, diseases such as typhus and dysentery spread rapidly through the starving and weakened camp population.

Those who couldn't even crawl propped themselves up on an elbow, and somehow, through all their pain and suffering, revealed through their eyes the gratitude, the joy they felt at the arrival of Americans.--Capt.

J. D. Pletcher[4]The American soldiers immediately began requisitioning supplies and transportation from the local town to provide the prisoners with food and water.