Thalerhof (also transliterated as Talerhof from
Cyrillic-based East Slavic texts) was a
concentration camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
created by the
Austro-Hungarian authorities active from 1914 to 1917, in a valley in
foothills of the Alps, near
Graz, the main city of the province of
Styria.
The Austro-Hungarian authorities imprisoned leaders of the
Russophile movement among
Carpatho-Rusyns,
Lemkos
Lemkos ( rue, Лeмкы, translit= Lemkŷ; pl, Łemkowie; uk, Лемки, translit=Lemky) are an ethnic group inhabiting the Lemko Region ( rue, Лемковина, translit=Lemkovyna; uk, Лемківщина, translit=Lemkivshchyna) of Car ...
, and
Galicians
Galicians ( gl, galegos, es, gallegos, link=no) are a Celtic-Romance ethnic group from Spain that is closely related to the Portuguese people and has its historic homeland is Galicia, in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. Two Romance la ...
(see
Galician Russophilia); those who recognized the
Russian language as the
literary standard form of their own
Slavic language varieties and had sympathy for the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
. Thus, the captives were forced to abandon their identity as
Russians
, native_name_lang = ru
, image =
, caption =
, population =
, popplace =
118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate)
, region1 =
, pop1 ...
, or sympathies for Russia, and identify as
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
. Captives who identified themselves as Ukrainians were freed from the camp. Between 1924-1932, four issues of the Thalerhof Almanac were published in
Lviv
Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukrain ...
, in which collected documentary evidence of the number of prisoners and the murders of peaceful Russophiles by the Austrian authorities was published. Out of 5,500,158 inhabitants of
Eastern Galicia
Eastern Galicia ( uk, Східна Галичина, Skhidna Galychyna, pl, Galicja Wschodnia, german: Ostgalizien) is a geographical region in Western Ukraine (present day oblasts of Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil), having also essential h ...
in 1914, 2,114,792 (39.8%) were native speakers of
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
, and 3,385,366 (58.9%) were native speakers of
Ruthenian (
Rusyn or
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
). In the book "Habsburg national politics during the First World War", authors D.A. Akhremenko, chairman of a public organization called Historical Consciousness, and K.V. Shevchenko, a professor at
Belarusian State University
Belarusian State University (BSU) ( be, links=no, Белару́скі дзяржа́ўны ўніверсітэ́т, ; russian: links=no, Белору́сский госуда́рственный университе́т) is a university in Mins ...
, state that Thalerhof held a total of 10,000 Russians, about 2,000 Rusyns (according to other sources up to 5,000), and about 200-250 students placed in the camp on charges of
sympathy for the Russian Empire, and the Russian books of
Grigory Skovoroda
Hryhorii Skovoroda, also Gregory Skovoroda or Grigory Skovoroda ( la, Gregorius Scovoroda; uk, Григорій Савич Сковорода, ''Hryhorii Savych Skovoroda''; russian: Григо́рий Са́ввич Сковорода́, ...
,
Taras Shevchenko
Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko ( uk, Тарас Григорович Шевченко , pronounced without the middle name; – ), also known as Kobzar Taras, or simply Kobzar (a kobzar is a bard in Ukrainian culture), was a Ukrainian poet, wr ...
,
Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
,
Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...
and others.
In total over twenty thousand people were arrested and placed in Thalerhof camp.
Thalerhof had no barracks until the winter of 1915. Prisoners slept on the ground in the open-air during both rain and frost. According to
U.S. Congressman Medill McCormick, prisoners were regularly beaten and tortured.
On 9 November 1914 an official report of Fieldmarshal Schleer said there were 5,700 Carpatho-Rusyns, Lemkos, and Ukrainians in Talerhof. The camp was closed by Emperor
Charles I of Austria
Charles I or Karl I (german: Karl Franz Josef Ludwig Hubert Georg Otto Maria, hu, Károly Ferenc József Lajos Hubert György Ottó Mária; 17 August 18871 April 1922) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary (as Charles IV, ), King of Croatia, ...
, 6 months into his reign.
[ World Academy of Carpatho-Rusyn Culture website, citing ''Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture'']
In the first eighteen months of its existence, three thousand prisoners of Thalerhof died, including the Orthodox saint
Maxim Sandovich, who was martyred here (beatified August 29, 1996 by the
Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia).
From 1945 to 1955 it was RAF Station Thalerfhof before being transferred back to the Austrian Government.
Graz Airport
Graz Airport , known as ''Flughafen Graz'' in German, is a primary international airport serving southern Austria. It is located near Graz, the second-largest city in Austria, in the municipalities of Feldkirchen and Kalsdorf, south of Graz ...
currently occupies the former site of the camp.
A mass grave of Thalerhof internees is located at
Feldkirchen bei Graz
Feldkirchen bei Graz is a municipality in the district of Graz-Umgebung in the Austrian state of Styria.
History
It is the site of the mass grave of prisoners interned, tortured and killed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the nearby Thalerhof i ...
.
People interned in Thalerhof
*
Jaroslav Kacmarcyk
*
Maxim Sandovich
*
Metodyj Trochanovskij
*Hryc Krajnyk from Ulucz
* ''Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture'' lists the following persons: priests (Havryil Hnatyshak, Teofil’ Kachmarchyk, Dymytrii Khyliak, Vasylii Kuryllo, Mykolai Malyniak, Vasylii Mastsiukh, Tyt Myshkovskii, Ioann Polianskii, Olympii Polianskii, Roman Pryslopskii), lawyers (Iaroslav Kachmarchyk, Teofil’ Kuryllo) and cultural activists (Nikolai Hromosiak, Dymytrii Kachor, Simeon Pysh, Metodii Trokhanovskii, Dymytrii Vyslotskii).
[
]
See also
*Ukrainian Canadian internment
The Ukrainian Canadian internment was part of the confinement of "enemy aliens" in Canada during and for two years after the end of the First World War. It lasted from 1914 to 1920, under the terms of the ''War Measures Act''.
Canada was at war wi ...
* Ukrainian Austrian internment
*Central Labour Camp Jaworzno The Jaworzno concentration camp was a concentration camp in WW2 German-occupied Poland and later in Communist Poland. It was first established by the Nazis in 1943 during the Second World War and was later used from 1945 to 1956 by the Soviet NKVD a ...
References
{{Authority control
Anti-Russian sentiment
Austria-Hungary in World War I
History of Styria
Internment camps in Austria
Legal history of Austria
Persecution of Eastern Orthodox Christians
Russophile Movement in Western Ukraine
1914
This year saw the beginning of what became known as World War I, after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austrian throne was Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. It als ...
Rusyns
Social history of Austria-Hungary
World War I crimes by Austria-Hungary
World War I internment camps