Internment camp Kirchberg an der Wild
The Kirchberg internment camp existed between 1914 and 1916 in Kirchberg Castle in Kirchberg an der Wild in Lower Austria . it is an internment camp for citizens from states at war with Austria-Hungary.
The war Monitoring Office issued on 9 December 1914, the Lower Austrian governor's office instructed either in District St. Pölten or in Waidhofen an der Thaya District to build an additional bearing due to insufficient space in the existing detention centers.
Three days later, a report was sent to the War Surveillance Office that suitable accommodation had been found in the Zwettl district .
On December 15, 1914, another internment camp was set up by the Waidhofen an der Thaya district administration in a castle also belonging to Count van der Straten (see Karlstein an der Thaya internment camp ).
The first inmates were English and French on December 18, who had to evacuate the Freistadt barracks in Upper Austria (Mühlviertel). Among the internees in the camp Kirchberg an der Wild also the brother of belonged to James Joyce , Stanislaus Joyce , who later into internment Grossau was moved. The priest and historian Alphons Žák was the administrator of the camp in Kirchberg an der Wild .
In January 1915, the camp, which was planned for “better internees” (senior officials, reserve officers, clergy), received a visit from the US embassy in Vienna, which at the time was the representative of a (still) neutral state, primarily serving British citizens Austria-Hungary represented.
The discovery of a US uniform button (type: WW1 US Army Tunic Button) on a private property nearby below the castle suggests that the US military was also present on this visit. However, US soldiers may never have been interned in this camp, as the United States only entered the war after the camp was dissolved.
On February 17, 1916, the farm belonging to the castle was leased to the Gmünd refugee camp for the duration of the war . To make room for the workers from Gmünd, the Kirchberg an der Wild internment camp was closed on March 8, 1916 and some of the inmates were transferred to the Weikertschlag internment camp.
literature
- Leo Leitner: A Letter from Ulysses. James Joyce and his brother, the First World War and the Waldviertel. A successful search for clues. In: tomorrow . 8, 2004, pp. 48-52.
Coordinates: 48 ° 45 ′ 3.9 " N , 15 ° 24 ′ 13.9" E