DP camp Haid

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The DP camp Haid or officially housing estate 121 Haid was a DP camp for displaced persons (DP) in Ansfelden in Upper Austria, initially under American and then Upper Austrian administration . Displaced Persons were civilians who were initially without a known place of residence due to the turmoil of World War II .

After the Second World War, Ansfelden belonged to the American zone of occupation . The camp was set up by the American military administration on the existing Wehrmacht labor camp from 1945. In September of the same year, between 8,000 and 9,000 captured SS members came to the camp under the guard of American soldiers who had to continue the expansion. In the following years, the camp of expelled Jews from Poland as well as homeless people from Yugoslavia , Romania , Hungary , Germany , the CSR and also Transylvanian Saxony, Sudeten Germans and Croats populated. In October 1956, when the popular uprising in Hungary was suppressed with Soviet armored troops, around 700 refugees came to the last stocks of the Haid camp.

location

The camp was located in what is now the Haid district and was around half a square kilometer in size. Around 100 objects were in it, most of them made of wood (barracks), a few - primarily for administration and commercial purposes - made of stone. The barracks were 270 m² and mostly consisted of just one room.

Warehouse management

In 1946 the settlement management, which was subordinate to the Upper Austrian provincial government , took over the administration of the camp. From 1947 to 1964, the settlement manager was Emil Lispky, who was supported by officials, warehouse workers, employees and the settlement council. In 1949 the camp was occupied by 4661 people, 1243 were fully employed at the end of the year, and 3407 people were fully cared for. From February to June 1957 the camp was administered by the League of Red Cross Societies .

Social situation in the camp

The people in the camp had various basic professions , mostly farmers but also craftsmen and entrepreneurs and members of the spiritual professions were among them. The refugees looking for work were initially only placed in agriculture , later in construction and much later in industry . Often the camp residents were those who escaped the extermination camps in their home countries and arrived in Austria sick and broken. So it happened that at least one in five people in the Haid camp had to be supported by the Welfare Office of the Resettlement Office. The economic situation did not give rise to hopes of permanent employment even for the best qualified people, so that many emigrated abroad. What remained was the mass of old and sick people, as well as those who were able to build an existence. Two doctors and three nurses were available for medical care.

Commerce and business

In 1954 there were many shops in the warehouse: groceries, milk, meat, textiles and haberdashery, tailoring, hairdressers, shoemakers and photographers. However, many of the residents kept pigs, cows and small animals for self-sufficiency. In January 1949 a music school was opened.

Dissolution of the camp

In 1953 the non-profit state housing cooperative for Upper Austria was founded, the aim of which was to eliminate the misery of the barracks. Ansfelden's municipal council decided to become a member of the cooperative. With the help of the municipality of Ansfelden, the state of Upper Austria, loans from the federal government, the refugee commissioner of the United Nations , the Swiss and Norwegian European Aid and the Federal Republic of Germany, the financial resources for the extensive housing projects were raised. The implementation of the project began in 1956, and Haid transformed into one of the largest construction sites in Austria. Step by step the barracks were torn down and rows of apartment blocks were built. But not only in the camp, but also in the vicinity, people from the camp settled, so that refugees and locals established neighborly relationships.

people

People from contemporary history who have made their way to the housing estate include:

Literature and references

  • Josef Fuchshuber: Ansfelden then and now. Part 2 . City of Ansfelden, Ansfelden 1988, OCLC 630857245 .
  • Maria Weiss: DP Siedlung 121 Haid 1941 to 1961. Historical-biographical photo documentation. City of Ansfelden, Ansfelden 2004, OCLC 271656028 .
  • Alexandra Kreissberger: Provisional home. The DP settlement 121 Haid between 1946 and 1964 . Thesis . Salzburg 1995.
  • Paul Wagner (Ed.): Heimatbuch Haid. From the barrack church to the Haid motorway church. Becoming and growing a settlement. Ansfelden 1964.
  • Renate Lechner: From the Haid camp to the Haid district. 4th grade pupils at secondary school in Haid I explored the history of their district . In: Ansfeld municipal news No. 502 . December 1, 2005, p. 41 .
  • Information from the Upper Austrian regional archive (PDF; 60 kB)
  • nachricht.at From a youth in the Haid barracks camp - Interview in the daily newspaper OÖ Nachrichten, April 22, 2011
  • Stanley Wrygt, the press officer of the High Commissioner for World Refugees, visited the Haid refugee camp in 1958 and made a film in Wegscheid, Wels and Haid.


Coordinates: 48 ° 12 '14.4 "  N , 14 ° 15' 14.4"  E