War memorial Silbertal

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The former war memorial in Silbertal, located on the forecourt in front of the Silbertal parish church (May 2009)

The Silbertal war memorial was erected in 1968 to mark the First and Second World War in the Austrian community of Silbertal in Vorarlberg . Since 2007, a historical work-up was made at a in the name inscriptions of the Fallen other named perpetrators NS , leading to the removal of the war memorial led by the municipality Silbertal in June of 2009. A memorial place was created in 2010 on the site of the war memorial.

history

The war memorial was erected on October 13, 1968 by the Silbertal community on the initiative of the Austrian Association of Comrades . The memorial was in front of the cemetery wall, on the forecourt in front of the Silbertal parish church within the cemetery . It served to commemorate the “victims of all wars” and the fallen from the First and Second World Wars . On the monument to fallen in the two world wars sons of the community were listed, and including the cost of World War II war missing persons were reported.

In 2007, when media reports announced that a war criminal was among those killed in action , the war memorial came under public criticism. The casual worker Josef Vallaster , who comes from Silbertal, was involved in the crimes of the Holocaust as an SS member during the Nazi era, as reported in the Vorarlberger Nachrichten in June 2007. Vallaster was involved in the gassing of disabled and sick people and the cremation of their corpses in the NS killing center in Hartheim and in the mass murder of mainly Jewish people from all over Europe in the Sobibór extermination camp .

"The community of Silbertal to the victims of all wars". The entry "VALLASTER JOS." Is at the top of the fourth name column

Demands were made to remove either Josef Vallaster's name or the monument itself. This led to the establishment of a history workshop , which was supported by the community of Silbertal, the Montafon stand , the Vorarlberger Illwerke , the Montafon Heimatschutzverein and the state of Vorarlberg . The Montafon historian Bruno Winkler took over the management . Initially, an addition to the memorial inscription to include the names of the local victims of the “euthanasia” murders of the so-called Action T4 was discussed. By the end of 2008, the history of the Nazi perpetrator Josef Vallaster was processed, with the Silbertaler history workshop receiving technical support from the historian Wolfgang Weber from the Vorarlberg State Archives .

Weber published his book Von Silbertal nach Sobibor in November 2008 . About Josef Vallaster and National Socialism in the Montafon , in which he reports about Vallaster and two other Nazi perpetrators from the region. Vallaster was slain by revolting prisoners during the Sobibór uprising in 1943 and then buried with military honors by the SS in the military cemetery in Chelm . In his homeland he was reported as "fallen", which explains his inclusion in the list of fallen soldiers at the war memorial.

New war memorial (detail): Alpine flowers in the gravel on every labeled and unlabeled plate
New war memorial (detail) with an explanation of the redesign
New war memorial (detail) with names of five forced laborers , one refugee , two victims of euthanasia under National Socialism

The work of the Silbertaler Geschichtswerkstatt met with supraregional interest and received mostly positive feedback. The "model remembrance project" was reported several times in newspapers and magazines as well as on television, for example in November 2008 as part of the Provikar Lampert Academy 2008 on ORF television.

In the summer of 2009 the community finally decided to replace the war memorial with a memorial place. Not only those who died in the two world wars from the town should be commemorated there, but also the refugees, forced laborers and "euthanasia" victims . Reference should be made specifically to Josef Vallaster.

The controversial memorial was removed by the community on June 25, 2009. Threats from neo-Nazis , including at the (now defunct) right-wing Internet - site Alpen-Donau.info , directed against the community and individuals who had contributed to an accelerated decision.

In November 2009, the Silbertal history workshop presented its concept for the new memorial site. At the site of the former war memorial, an information board has meanwhile shown that it will soon be redesigned as a memorial. The construction of the Silbertaler Memorial Square was completed in November 2010. The monument area was laid on one level and laid out irregularly with stone slabs. Josef Vallaster mentions his own stone slab as the reason for the redesign. A stone tablet lists the soldiers of the First World War, a second the soldiers of the Second World War. A third stone tablet names other victims of the Second World War, including several forced laborers, a refugee and two "euthanasia" victims.

Former monument

The war memorial consisted of a large block of gneiss in the form of an altar , which was designed as a stone carving . The front was engraved with an inscription . Under the headings The community Silbertal the victims of all wars as well as 1914-1918 and 1938-1945 the fallen and missing of the two world wars were listed, whereby the names for the Second World War were divided into fallen and missing persons .

Artistic reception

As part of its art project Remember, a journey from north to south , the writer visited Rainer Juriatti and photographer Eva Ilzer in autumn 2008, several memorial sites in Vorarlberg, while these "places of memory" each photographically documented and their thoughts about these " places of remembrance "And the" collective memory "formulated in short texts. Juriatti and Ilzer also dealt with the war memorial in Silbertal and with the person Josef Vallaster, which has now taken on a documentary character due to the fact that the war memorial was not foreseeable at the time.

The joint art project of the two Vorarlbergers Juriatti and Ilzer was presented for the first time as part of the Carl Lampert Recall events in November 2008 on ORF television.

literature

  • Wolfgang Weber: From Silbertal to Sobibor. About Josef Vallaster and National Socialism in the Montafon. Rheticus-Gesellschaft , Feldkirch 2008 (= issue 48/2008), ISBN 978-3-902601-07-0 .
  • Hans Netzer: Silbertaler soldiers in World War II. Heimatschutzverein im Tale Montafon, Schruns 2003 (= Montafoner Schriftenreihe No. 8), ISBN 3-902225-06-8 .

Web links

Commons : Kriegerdenkmal Silbertal  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bruno Winkler: Disparate worlds of memory in the village - Silbertal gets a place of remembrance, has gained respect and lost certainties (PDF; 1.6 MB) Culture Vorarlberg No. 9, November 2010
  2. ↑ a b Silbertal, Bludenz district, Vorarlberg, Austria. Online project Gefallenendenkmäler (www.denkmalprojekt.org), July 10, 2005, accessed on November 30, 2009 (date of the copy [of the memorial inscription]).
  3. ↑ Seff Dünser: The unknown mass murderer. Josef Vallaster from Silbertal was a Nazi mass murderer and is unknown in Vorarlberg. Vorarlberg News June 14, 2007, p 8 , accessed on 30 November 2009 (Published online on: Johann August Malin Society (www.malingesellschaft.at)).
  4. ^ Community of Silbertal on Nazi criminal Josef Vallaster. In: www.meznar-media.com. Vorarlberg Online (www.vol.at), July 2, 2007, accessed on November 30, 2009 .
  5. ↑ a b Story of a mass murderer. Silbertaler Geschichtswerkstatt has thoroughly dealt with the life of Nazi perpetrator Josef Vallaster. (No longer available online.) In: News: Press release. Stand Montafon (www.stand-montafon.at), November 2008, formerly in the original ; Retrieved November 30, 2009 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.stand-montafon.at
  6. ^ Silbertal: Working through the Nazi past together. ORF (vorarlberg.orf.at), November 15, 2008, accessed on December 25, 2009 .
  7. ↑ a b Karin Bitschnau: Review: Lampert Academy 2008. Catholic Church Vorarlberg, July 23, 2009, accessed on December 25, 2009 .
  8. ^ Jutta Berger: Silbertal in Vorarlberg. Controversial war memorial removed. Der Standard (derstandard.at), June 25, 2009, accessed on November 30, 2009 .
  9. ↑ The threat of neo-Nazis. Liechtensteiner Volksblatt (www.volksblatt.li), June 28, 2009, accessed on November 30, 2009 .
  10. ↑ Successfully dealt with the Nazi past in Silbertal. Meznar Media (www.meznar-media.com), November 12, 2009, accessed November 30, 2009 .
  11. ^ Rainer Juriatti : Places of Remembrance. Homepage of the writer Rainer Juriatti, 2008, archived from the original on July 13, 2012 ; Retrieved May 15, 2012 .
  12. ↑ Rainer Juriatti: # 16 - Silbertal - Friedhof - War memorial plaque with Josef Vallaster. Homepage of the writer Rainer Juriatti, 2008, archived from the original on January 26, 2013 ; Retrieved December 25, 2009 .
  13. ^ Eva Ilzer: Places of Remembrance. (No longer available online.) Homepage of photographer Eva Ilzer, 2008, archived from the original on May 4, 2012 ; accessed on December 25, 2009 (>> Image 14 of 15: Silbertal - Cemetery - War memorial plaque with Josef Vallaster ). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.evailzer.com

Coordinates: 47 ° 5 ′ 40.6 ″  N , 9 ° 58 ′ 38.6 ″  E