Kriegsgefangenenfriedhof Frauenkirchen

From 1914 to 1918 there was a prisoner of war and internment camp for deported civilians. Around 4,500 to 6,000 prisoners of war and deported civilians from the First World War are buried in the cemetery in individual graves and 14 shaft graves that date from the typhus epidemic. The prisoners of war and the deported civilians of all ages were housed in set up barracks in the camp. The barracks were about 40 meters long, 10 meters wide and 4 to 5 meters high. Only the cemetery of the former prisoner of war camp can be seen. Directions: Drive from 7132 Frauenkrichen in the direction of Podersdorf, after about 500 meters you will see a driveway on the right. The road to the prisoner of war cemetery is about 400 meters long unpaved avenue. The site is always freely accessible and parking spaces are available. At the entrance there is an information board in 4 languages ​​(German, English, Serbian, Hungarian) about the POW camp. Highly recommended if your visit around here. The following can be read on the information board: “The memory of the POW camp in Boldogasszony / Frauenkirchen began in September 1914, and Russian prisoners were used for the work. The residential barracks that had been erected were about 40 meters long, 10 meters wide and 4 to 5 meters high. Initially 400 men were accommodated in each, and up to 600 prisoners in the winter of 1914/15. Subsequently, the camp was expanded twice and from 1916 onwards there were around 30,000 prisoners, although around 2/3 of the prisoners were on work outside the camp. The camp had its own infrastructure, which consisted of a groundwater well, a power plant, a field railway and a camp post office. The Royal Hungarian XIV. Landsturm Guard Battalion was entrusted with guarding the camp. The number of guards varied between 300 and 1200 men and between 13 and 26 officers. While there were predominantly Russian prisoners in the camp when it was set up, the camp was converted into a Serb prisoner of war camp as early as autumn 1914. The POW camp has also been an internment camp since it was founded. The deported civilians in the camp were men, women and children of all ages from Serbia, Montenegro and Bukovina. In the summer of 1916 around 2500 Montenegrin internees were brought to the camp. In Frauenkirchen only a few officers, mostly Montenegrins and Italians, were imprisoned in separate barracks. The construction of the camp took place under massive time pressure, so that grievances during the construction were foreseeable. Inadequate hygienic precautions and the massive concentration of people in the smallest of spaces meant that epidemics such as typhus were able to spread rapidly in the winter of 1914/15. The epidemic reached its deplorable climax in early February 1915, with over 100 fatalities every day. An inspection report of April 10, 1915 spoke of 3,690 typhus victims. At the end of the war, the camp inmates were repatriated and at the same time the camp was plundered by the returning prisoners of war and the civilian population. The barracks and the rest of the real estate were offered for sale in 1919, so that only the cemetery remained of the former prisoner of war camp within a very short time. The distinctive elements of the cemetery today are the Italian chapel, which was built by Italian prisoners during the camp's existence, and that too 2.5 meter high stone “Serbian Cross” from this period. The Yugoslav monument, a white marble obelisk, has stood since 1954.