Sittmannshof internment camp
Between 1915 and 1916, the Sittmannshof internment camp for citizens from states at war with Austria-Hungary was located in the Meierhof "Sittmannshof" near Loibes in the Lower Austrian Waldviertel .
On June 21, 1915 , the Waidhofen an der Thaya district commission set up an internment camp in a farm between Karlstein an der Thaya and Groß-Siegharts, which belonged to Count van der Straten and which has probably not been managed since the beginning of the war .
Alexander Ritter Bosizio von Thurnberg und Jungsegg quartered around 100 people here, who were available to the tenants of the Meierhof and the owners of the surrounding fields for agricultural work.
The state veterinarian, Doctor Kurzweil, supervised the use of internees, and the mayor of Loibes Anton Schild was the administrator of the camp. He was also responsible for the safekeeping of the internees' funds. A labor inspector was also stationed here.
At the beginning of August 1915, most of the 115 internees here came from Italy . About 30 people worked here on the Meierhof itself, the rest was spread over other farms.
In the course of 1915 an additional barrack was built to treat any infectious diseases that might arise .
In November 1915 the internment camp Sittmannshof took the internees of the disbanded internment camp Steinklamm into evidence , whereby the official workforce rose from 115 to over 4,000. Italian internees who were to be transferred to the Katzenau internment camp were also recorded here.
Due to the decreasing number of internees in the area of the district administration Waidhofen an der Thaya, the district captain decided to close the Sittmannshof camp on May 31, 1916. Internees who were still here were transferred to the Drosendorf internment camp or included in its records.
In July 1916, the District Captain Bosizio reported to the Lieutenancy that he wanted to occupy the camp with farming families and cows from the Gmünd refugee camp . The reason for this plan was the constant lack of milk for the around 400 children in the internment camps in the area of responsibility of the Waidhofen an der Thaya district administration .
The new opening took place on July 15, and at the end of September 1916, 40 cows came from the Gmünd refugee camp. The cost of milk production, which was too high in relation to the yield, persuaded the district administration to end the company and to close the Meierhof on October 15, 1916 and send the cows back to Gmünd.
The property of the Meierhof was taken over by the administration of the barrack camp in Gmünd in order to have it managed by the refugee families settled here.
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).
Coordinates: 48 ° 51 ′ 0 " N , 15 ° 23 ′ 38.4" E