Stopping camp

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Detention camp were in Austria during the time of the Austro-fascist corporate state 1933-1938 internment in which political opponents, first illegal Nazis , after the February uprising in 1934 also Social Democrats and Communists were admitted. They were also used as notary's remains as regular prisons were extremely overcrowded.

history

In National Socialist Germany , the first concentration camp was founded on March 20, 1933 at the instigation of Heinrich Himmler in the barracks of a former ammunition factory in Dachau . In Austria, the idea of ​​setting up “collective camps” came from circles in the Home Guard around Interior Minister Emil Fey . These ideas were not without controversy in the Austrian government, members of the Landbund spoke out vehemently against it; Fey was able to prevail, however, and the members of the federal government (Vice Chancellor Franz Winkler , Minister Vinzenz Schumy , State Secretary Franz Bachinger ) then resigned from the government in protest.

The first detention camp was set up in September 1933 following a decree by the Dollfuss government "to arrest 'people who pose a threat to security' and to 'detain them in a certain place'" without legal proceedings. This also seems to be the characteristic of all these institutions, namely that persons have been detained by the executive for a definite or indefinite period without a judicial hearing or judicial conviction.

There were a large number of local detention camps and notary arrests in Austria for the accommodation of prisoners from overcrowded prisons, the best known of which was the detention camp in Wöllersdorf in the long-standing Wöllersdorf works . On October 17, 1933, eleven National Socialists were detained here, the highest level was reached on October 15, 1934 with 4,794 detainees and prisoners (4,256 National Socialists, 538 Social Democrats and Communists); shortly before the closure there were 114 people in Wöllersdorf (including 45 National Socialists, 11 Social Democrats and 58 Communists). The second largest was the Kaisersteinbruch detention camp , there were 77 prisoners here on January 22, 1934, the highest level was reached on April 2, 1934 with 629 people (516 National Socialists, 119 Social Democrats and Communists), and the remaining prisoners followed on April 27, 1934 Wöllersdorf spent. Other larger camps were the Messendorf detention camp and the one in Finstermünz .

Immediately after February 12 and July 25, 1934, numerous small camps were set up in order to be able to take into custody the large number of captured rebels and political functionaries; Jagschitz mentions Amstetten, Hollabrunn, Mödling, St. Pölten or the Hohensalzburg fortress, for example.

Detention camps existed until the so-called Anschluss of Austria in 1938.

Comparison with concentration camps

Attempts to compare detention camps with the concentration camps of the National Socialists in Germany were made by the National Socialists in particular. The Völkischer Beobachter uses this term in a stereotypical way, for example a headline from January 2, 1934 reads: "A Reich German deported to an Austrian concentration camp." Such allusions can also be found today, but they are controversial. This equation does not take into account the peculiarities of the political situation in Austria, which led to the imprisonment of National Socialists, among other things, through the massive terrorist acts of the National Socialists that began in 1933, through the July coup and the murder of Chancellor Dollfuss. In particular, the illegal Austrian National Socialists imprisoned in Wöllersdorf tried to make propaganda use of the conditions in the camp and portrayed Wöllersdorf as “hell on earth”. In contrast to these propaganda attempts, national and national socialist representations circled Wöllersdorf as a “folk rest home “, Although the repression in individual cases was quite depressing.

It has been proven that the treatment of prisoners in the detention camps is not to be equated with the German concentration camps. In contrast to the concentration camps, there was no forced labor , no torture or even executions until the annexation of Austria to the German Reich . Inmates could have money sent to the detention center to buy food and move freely around the camp grounds. These freedoms were used by the prisoners on both the communist and the national socialist side for ideological indoctrination. The British journalist George Eric Rowe Gedye , who had visited Wöllersdorf in 1934, wrote that the detainees “had to get up at 6 am, clean their barracks and do gymnastic exercises for an hour; at 9 p.m. the lights had to be turned off. Otherwise, they were free to dispose of their time and seemed to spend most of it playing football, sunbathing and reading under the trees. Most seriously, all the Nazis complained to me about the ban on community singing ”. However, the detainees had to pay for their “stay” in the camps themselves, the cost was six shillings per day, which drove many to the brink of ruin. Visits by family members and correspondence were possible. However, some prisoners suffered from depression and detention psychosis ; Suicide attempts occurred, but there were hardly any successful suicides.

Beggar detention camp in Schlögen

A special feature of the corporate state was the establishment of a beggar detention camp in Upper Austria. The pressing economic hardship of the 1930s forced many unemployed people to survive by begging. The home parishes were actually responsible for caring for the poor, but they themselves were not financially liquid. The home communities could, however, issue so-called support cards in which the services of other communities could then be entered; A reclaim of these services was possible, but not enforceable due to the high administrative effort. People without a support card could be caught and sentenced to arrest (3 days to 6 weeks). Due to the amendment to the Home Act of 1935, the federal states were free to create institutions in which the apprehended beggars could work off their imprisonment. Only Upper Austria made use of this option and passed a detention camp law in 1935. Provincial Councilor and Security Director Peter Revertera announced this to the public on July 5, 1935. The detention camp was built on the right bank of the Danube in Schlögen, which was connected with the work intended for the prisoners - the expansion of the Passau-Linz road. Four barracks, in which the prisoners could be housed, and other buildings to accommodate the guards were built on the camp area. The camp was surrounded by barbed wire taller than a man, then a 20-meter-high watchtower and spotlights were built. The guard was initially carried out by 35 Schutzkorpsmen, from 1 May 1936 a separate gendarmerie branch with three gendarmes and seven civilian guards was set up for this purpose.

On August 30, 1935, the first “beggar raid” took place in Upper Austria, others followed; Of the 915 people picked up, 134 were transferred to Schlögen, while the others were sent to their home communities. The purpose of the camp was educational (getting used to work, the punitive aspect was secondary). After imprisonment, the people should get into an employment relationship or enter into “voluntary labor service”. Escape was rare, but the transfer to an employment relationship was also unsatisfactory. The inmates were paid 50 groschen and five cigarettes a day; however, the wages were not paid after the imprisonment, but in the form of benefits in kind (clothing, shoes). In the later period, the surveillance of the prisoners on the construction sites was stopped and the prisoners were able to move out to their work under the command of a group leader. In addition to the expansion of the Passau-Linz road, the prisoners were also involved in excavations of a Roman fort and in the salvage of a Danube steamship. In the press the prisoners were given a very good testimony (“great zeal and perseverance, high discipline”). After the Anschluss , probably in August 1938, the beggar camp was closed and the "inmates voluntarily introduced into the labor process".

The response to the facility was divided. Other federal states could not make up their minds to set up such camps, mainly for financial reasons, and criticized the fact that begging was only outsourced to other federal states. Czech diplomats who visited the camp were very positive. The echo in the press of the time was also divided: While the official press of the corporate state praised the camp as a “groundbreaking act” and the church papers did not comment on it, the socialist underground press rated this camp as a public disgrace (“The need remains in Austria in stock. ").

Forced labor in the Nazi Gypsy detention camp in Lackenbach

Assembly camps for ethnic minorities, especially against the Roma , who certainly had the character of concentration camps , were only set up in Austria after 1938 during the Nazi era. The basis was the decree adopted in Berlin on May 13, 1938 to combat the "gypsy plague". With the “ Aktion Arbeitsscheu Reich ” organized by the criminal police, Sinti and Roma were sent to concentration camps in April and June 1938 . It is estimated that 500,000 people died in the genocide of this ethnic group. The largest “concentration camp assembly camp” of this type in Austria was the “ Gypsy detention camp Lackenbach ”. It was set up in November 1940 on the Schaflerhof, a former Esterhazy estate, and was under the control of the Vienna Criminal Police Headquarters ( Gestapo ), which also provided the camp administration officials.

In Lackenbach, the prisoners had to do their own living through forced labor , comparable to the German concentration camps, and allegedly also had to support the inmates who were unable to work. At first they only worked in the camp and on the camp's own fields or in a sawmill. Later they were increasingly used outside the camp, in building the Reichsautobahn , building roads , building an anti-aircraft position , regulating streams , building weir , in brickworks , in mills , in factories , in taverns and on farms . Children and young people were “given” to farms and forest companies. The inmates had to work 8 to 11 hours a day. Since only the usable labor was important, the elderly and children were particularly at risk from the deportations.

Other detention and gypsy camps were in St. Pantaleon-Weyer and on the Traunsee .

literature

  • Gerhard Jagschitz : The detention camps in Austria, especially the Kaisersteinbruch detention camp. In: Helmuth Furch (ed.): 400 years of Kaisersteinbruch , 1590–1990, Festschrift, pp. 58–60, 1990 DNB 941654117 .
  • Gerhard Jagschitz: The detention camps in Austria . In: Ludwig Jedlicka , Rudolf Neck (ed.): From the Justizpalast to Heldenplatz . Studies and documentation 1927 to 1938. Österreichische Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1975, pp. 128–151.
  • Helmuth Furch : Historical lexicon Kaisersteinbruch , stopping camp. Volume 1. Museum and cultural association, Kaisersteinbruch 2004, p. 32ff., DNB 973632313 .
  • Andreas Maislinger : "Gypsy detention camps and labor education camps" Weyer: Supplement to a local chronicle . In: Pogrom . Journal of the Society for Threatened Peoples . Volume 18, No. 137, 1987, pp. 33-36.
  • Anton Philapitsch: Wöllersdorf trauma or myth . In: Leopold Mulley: Bullets-Scandals-Barbed Wire . Workers and Arms Industry 1999; ISBN 3-9500563-1-6
  • Regina Zodl: The Wöllersdorf detention camp 1933-1939, additional remarks. In: Leopold Mulley: Bullets-Scandals-Barbed Wire Workers and the armaments industry . 1999; ISBN 3-9500563-1-6
  • Kurt Bauer : The Austrian detention camps 1933–1938 . Extract from an unpublished research report. kurt-bauer-geschichte.at (PDF; 3.5 MB)
  • Kurt Bauer: Short biographies of known left-wing detainees 1933-1938 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerhard Jagschitz: The detention camps in Austria . In: Ludwig Jedlicka, Rudolf Neck (ed.): From the Justizpalast to Heldenplatz. Studies and documentation 1927 to 1938. Österreichische Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1975, pp. 128–151, here p. 133.
  2. quoted from Hugo Portisch 1989
  3. ^ Gerhard Jagschitz: The detention camps in Austria . In: Ludwig Jedlicka, Rudolf Neck (ed.): From the Justizpalast to Heldenplatz. Studies and documentations 1927 to 1938. Österreichische Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1975, pp. 128–151, here p. 149.
  4. ^ Gerhard Jagschitz: The detention camps in Austria . In: Ludwig Jedlicka, Rudolf Neck (ed.): From the Justizpalast to Heldenplatz. Studies and documentation 1927 to 1938. Österreichische Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1975, pp. 128–151, here p. 148.
  5. ^ Gerhard Jagschitz: The detention camps in Austria . In: Ludwig Jedlicka, Rudolf Neck (ed.): From the Justizpalast to Heldenplatz. Studies and documentation 1927 to 1938. Österreichische Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1975, pp. 128–151.
  6. Pia Schölnberger: "Quite bearable"? Everyday life in the detention camp in Wöllersdorf. (PDF; 977 kB) In: DÖW Mitteilungen , 195, March 2010, pp. 1–4.
  7. ^ Siegwald Ganglmair : The high school of Schlögen . On the history and reception of a beggar camp in the corporate state. In: Medien & Zeit , 5, pp. 19–29.
  8. Gernot Haupt: Poverty between ideology and economy . About the (in) effectiveness of economic arguments against impoverishment using the example of the discussion about beggar camps in 1935/36.
  9. Schlögen Roman Danube Fort
  10. ORF  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / science.orf.at  
  11. Gernot Haupt: Poverty between ideology and economy . On the (in) effectiveness of economic arguments against impoverishment using the example of the discussion about beggar camps 1935/36, p. 6.
  12. Erika Thurner : Short story of the National Socialist gypsy camp in Lackenbach (1940 to 1945) . Eisenstadt 1984.
  13. shoa.de
  14. Erika Thurner: National Socialism and Gypsies in Austria. (Publications of Contemporary History, Volume 2). Geyer, Vienna-Salzburg: 1983.
  15. ^ Wolfgang Quatember: Reichsstrasse construction residential camp Traunsee. ( Memento of the original from January 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.memorial-ebensee.at