Internment camp Markl
In the Meierhof von Markl, a cadastral community of Windigsteig in the Waldviertel ( Lower Austria ), the Markl internment camp for citizens from states at war with Austria-Hungary existed between 1915 and 1918 . But citizens of the Danube Monarchy were also interned here if they were suspected of being friendly to an enemy state.
At the end of 1914, the district captain of Waidhofen an der Thaya , Alexander Ritter Bosizio von Thurnberg und Jungsegg, applied to the Lieutenancy for Lower Austria in Vienna for approval for another internment camp in his district. Since the Orthodox Jews from the internment camp Drosendorf and the internment camp Illmau had complained about not being fed kosher , he planned to unite members of the Jewish faith in one camp and thus solve the religion-related food problem.
In addition, the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Waidhofen an der Thaya sought support for its fellow believers from the Baroness Clarisse Alphonse Rothschild, who on November 6, 1914 visited all the camps administered by the Waidhofen an der Thaya district administration. This was also granted in the form of 2,000 crowns, which the district captain received for safekeeping and administration. This money was supposed to cover the costs of setting up and running the Markl camp.
About 130 members of the Jewish faith and 40 to 50 field workers were to be interned in a farmyard owned by Baroness Widmann from Schwarzenau . Since the risk of escape for those interned here was assessed as low, it was planned to get by with a guard of only 3 men. The opening of the camp was delayed, however, because a typhus epidemic broke out in the Drosendorf camp and quarantine was therefore imposed on all camps .
After Italy entered the war , the capacity of the camp had to be increased by 400 people. This was done by building barracks . The completion notification was made on August 10, 1915. At the end of 1915, the Markl internment camp was able to accommodate up to 1,200 internees due to additional barracks. By the summer of 1916, the capacity could be increased to up to 1,400 people.
The poor food situation as a result of the war did not stop at the internment camps and so there was also hunger riots here. On May 6, 1917, the district captain of Waidhofen an der Thaya personally came to Markl to negotiate with those affected. On June 27, 1917, Nikolaus Ritter von Wassilko, a member of the Reichsrat , received a letter of complaint from the camp's Jewish staff about the poor diet. There was only sauerkraut and herrings left . The fact that since the Italians were also quartered in two separate kitchens to avoid new religion-related nutritional problems did not change the situation.
A planned repatriation of the interned Jews was delayed because their home regions of Bukovina and Eastern Galicia were again occupied by the Russians in 1917. The Jewish inmates were only released from the beginning of 1918.
At the beginning of August 1918 there were still 267 people in the Markl camp, 114 of whom were on work outside the camp. The internees in the camp were transferred to the Drosendorf internment camp and the Markl camp was closed on August 28, 1918.
The former internment camp Markl was still used between 1919 and 1920 as a "homecoming dispersal station" for Austrian prisoners of war.
literature
- 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).
Web links
Coordinates: 48 ° 45 ′ 50.8 " N , 15 ° 16 ′ 46.2" E