Drosendorf internment camp
The internment camp Drosendorf in Lower Austria ( Waldviertel ) existed in the Drosendorf Schüttkasten during the First World War and was used to receive people from states that were at war with Austria-Hungary . After the end of the war, Béla Kun and some of his followers were interned here for a short time .
planning
Even before the mobilization on July 31, 1914, the Imperial and Royal Ministry of the Interior and the Imperial and Royal Ministry of War discussed the future treatment of foreign civil and military persons who were in the Danube Monarchy and whose home states had declared war on Austria-Hungary .
All state administrations were instructed to register all suitable locations for an internment camp .
As a replacement for the originally called Geras which offered district captain of Horn the granary of Drosendorf at the Thaya on. This was a little outside the town of Drosendorf on the road to Zissersdorf and only a few minutes' walk from the Retz – Drosendorf local railway station. However, it was not suitable for residential use. The Hoyos estate management offered to carry out the corresponding adaptations against reimbursement of costs.
1914 to 1915
At the end of August 1914, the first transport of 80 internees arrived in Drosendorf an der Thaya, and they began to make the Schüttkasten habitable. The windows, which were only barred for good ventilation for the original purpose of the granary, first had to be sealed for the new use, and stoves had to be installed. The newly built sleeping places consisted only of heaped straw . A kitchen was added to the bulk box and toilets were built. The area around the bulk box was fenced off. Drinking water that was not available on site initially had to be delivered by carts until the well dug by the internees could supply the camp with water.
In addition to the activities required for the construction of the necessary infrastructure (well construction, later additional camp barracks and the camp hospital), the internees were also called in to do auxiliary work with farmers and craftsmen in the vicinity of Drosendorf. But they were also used in various work in Lower Austria and Vienna. In 1917 the parish church of Drosendorf was renovated by internees from Italy. A separate department was created for women and children, but it was closed again in October after being transferred to the Karlstein an der Thaya internment camp .
On September 5, 1914, according to the instructions of the Lower Austrian Lieutenancy, the District Captain of Waidhofen an der Thaya took over command of the internment camp.
The planned occupancy of around 1,700 people, but this number had to be reduced to around 650 because the loft of the bulk box was unusable as living space. In addition, a guardroom, a dilapidated room for those with minor illnesses and an isolation room for patients with contagious diseases had to be set up in the bulk box. In mid-November, the district captain reported to the Lower Austrian Lieutenancy and the War Surveillance Office that the adaptation work had been completed and that the accommodation met the hygienic requirements. No further changes or even improvements were made to these until January 1915, but then 15 cases of typhus were found. A spread to the population of Drosendorf could be prevented.
A barrack was built as quarters for the duration of the disinfection work in the bulk box . This also served as a takeover, Kontumaz and evacuation barracks for all internment camps administered by the Waidhofen an der Thaya district administration. The blueprint for this barrack came from an interned architect who already acted as site manager during the construction. This barrack went into operation in the first half of 1915.
In March 1915, the district administration of Horn granted the district administration of Waidhofen an der Thaya, as administrator of the internment camp Drosendorf in the district of Horn, a permit under water law to build a water supply system , which went into operation at the end of May 1915. The water was taken from a well on the Thaya. It was pumped into two containers in the loft of the bulkhead. One of these containers was heatable in order to serve as warm water for both internees and guards.
The water not used by the camp was given to the city of Drosendorf. At the beginning of 1916, however, the productivity of the well decreased so much that the War Surveillance Office approved a new water pipe. This went into operation in July of the same year and also supplied the camp hospital , which was newly built by October 1916 .
May 1915 to 1921
With the declaration of war by the Kingdom of Italy on Austria-Hungary on May 23, 1915, an order was issued to partially evacuate the internment camps of the Waidhofen an der Thaya district administration in order to make room for the newly interned "Reichsitalien" in the order of 1,500 to 2,000 people . The camp in Drosendorf was evacuated in May. Only 50 to 60 internees were left to keep operations going.
In order to enlarge the warehouse as ordered, lease agreements had to be signed with the landowners and tenants of the land south of the Schüttkast . The yield of the harvest that was no longer brought in was estimated and replaced, as was the crop failure in the following years. The construction work began at the end of May and beginning of June (the exact date cannot be determined) and lasted until the end of August 1915. Four barracks for 250 people each with connected latrines, a guard barrack with an observation tower, a bathing establishment and a camp chapel were built . In the event of infectious diseases , own bathing facilities could be built into the barracks and the barracks could thus be completely isolated from the rest of the camp.
The bulk box was redesigned for use by the warehouse management. A large kitchen, a dining room and an opportunity to wash up the dishes were built in on the ground floor. Apartments for internees working in the camp administration were built on the first floor. On the second floor, offices for the camp administration were set up, some of which were housed in the nearby castle of Drosendorf .
Until the camp was closed in 1919, hardly any structural changes were made.
Camp hospital
On the occasion of the expansion of the Drosendorf internment camp in 1915, a villa south of the Drosendorf train station was rented in order to set up the camp hospital there.
In mid-August 1915, the district captain of Waidhofen an der Thaya decided to set up a hospital to accommodate all seriously ill people from the internment camps he administered. This was intended to replace the hospital closed in the Grossau internment camp at the request of the new castle owner.
The hospital with 60 beds was built by a company from Vienna , internees from the neighboring camp acted as construction workers. The hospital was inaugurated on October 18, 1916 by the parish priest of Drosendorf, Ludolf Rudisch. On the same day, under the direction of the district doctor of Waidhofen an der Thaya, Dr. Bruno Langbank, the first operation took place.
Occupancy
Originally the internment camp Drosendorf was mainly occupied by British , French , Russians and Serbs and was not separated according to nationality like most POW camps . After the new occupancy in 1915, there were almost only Italians here, but the other nations were still represented.
According to reports from the Waidhofen an der Thaya district administration, this mixed occupancy was seen as an advantage, because the internees were easier to keep under control because of the numerous friction that resulted. It is not known whether this also meant mutual spying on (“veining”), but it can be assumed. Frictions arose between the individual nationalities due to class differences and the various religions . However, this friction could also develop into tangible disputes. For example, a case is known in which a camp inmate killed another during an argument and seriously injured another. He was sentenced to prison in a civil court trial, where he died. Only Jewish internees were amalgamated in the Markl internment camp in 1915 to facilitate their kosher diet. Some of the Jews who died here were buried in Horn in the cemetery of the IKG Horn .
Packaging
In addition to the internment camp in Drosendorf, around 100 financially strong people were confined in Drosendorf and Drosendorf-Altstadt from the beginning of 1915 . Financially strong because the internees in this way had to pay for accommodation in private quarters and meals themselves. They also had to be at low risk of escaping. They were allowed to move freely within a certain area and at certain times, had to take their meals at home and report to a supervisor at certain times.
Béla Kun
After the collapse of the communist Soviet republic in Hungary in 1919 , Béla Kun fled to Austria , where he and his supporters, including co-revolutionary Eugen Landler, received asylum and was interned. The first Hungarians arrived in Drosendorf at the beginning of July to be quartered here in the camp. However, this caused great resentment among the population, especially among farmers who wanted to cultivate their land again.
At the end of August 1919, Béla Kun and his supporters were relocated to Karlstein Castle on the Thaya.
resolution
After the armistice was signed on November 3, 1918, the camp was abandoned on November 7, 1918. The Austrian guards had deserted and the internees had also started their journey home. Only the warehouse keeper and administrative staff remained.
Leftover and usable stocks such as clothing and fuel, but also food, should benefit the suffering population. However, a fierce battle over this distribution broke out. Citizens of Drosendorf, the Waidhofen an der Thaya district administration as the warehouse administrator and the Horn district administration as the administrative authority responsible for Drosendorf an der Thaya fought together with the newly established People's Army about responsibility, which was finally resolved with a compromise.
The billeting of Béla Kun and his group delayed the liquidation of the camp and so the handover of the internment camp to the main facility for property demobilization did not take place until November 25, 1919, while the camp hospital was handed over to the city of Drosendorf for fiduciary management.
In the summer of 1920 the camp was finally closed.
Literature, web links
- Reinhard Mundschütz: Internment in the Waldviertel. The internment camps and stations of the BH Waidhofen an der Thaya 1914–1918. Vienna 2002 (Vienna, university, dissertation, 2002).
- Johannes Luxner: Photo documents from the camps: two- class society in the Waldviertel - 16 photos: Reinhard Mundschütz. orf.at, November 25, 2017.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Internment camps as Austria's taboo: Involuntary multinationality orf.at, November 25, 2017, accessed November 26, 2017. - Based (also) on a conversation with Reinhard Mundschütz , historian at the University of Vienna, who did his dissertation on research on internment camps. - With photographs.
Coordinates: 48 ° 51 ′ 43.4 " N , 15 ° 37 ′ 18.1" E