The Deutsch Schützen massacre was a 1945

mass killing Mass killing is a concept which has been proposed by genocide scholars who wish to define incidents of non-combat killing which are perpetrated by a government or a state. A mass killing is commonly defined as the killing of group members without ...

of at least 57

Hungarian Jewish The history of the Jews in Hungary dates back to at least the Kingdom of Hungary, with some records even predating the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin in 895 CE by over 600 years. Written sources prove that Jewish communities lived i ...

forced labor Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, or violence, including death or other forms of ...

ers by the

Waffen-SS The (; ) was the military branch, combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscr ...

Deutsch Schützen-Eisenberg Deutsch Schützen-Eisenberg (, ) is a municipality in Burgenland in the district of Oberwart in Austria. It was the site of the 1945 Deutsch Schützen massacre. Geography Parts of the municipality are Deutsch-Schützen, Edlitz im Burgenland, ...

in Austria. The

Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth ( , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth wing of the German Nazi Party. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. From 1936 until 1945, it was th ...

-''Bannführer'' Alfred Weber, who was responsible for construction in Deutsch Schützen, gave the order for the massacre. At the old church, Martinskirche, in the farmland on the west side of Deutsch Schützen, a plaque was erected on the exterior of the building memorializing those murdered in the massacre.

Historical Background

The village

had become a part of the

Styria Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian Federal states of Austria, state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and cloc ...

n Gau after the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...

because Southern

Burgenland Burgenland (; ; ; Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian: ''Burgnland''; Slovene language, Slovene: ''Gradiščanska''; ) is the easternmost and least populous Bundesland (Austria), state of Austria. It consists of two statutory city (Austria), statut ...

was annexed to it. The rest of the Bundesland became a part of the

Reichsgau Niederdonau The Reichsgau Lower Danube (German: ''Reichsgau Niederdonau'') was an administrative division of Nazi Germany consisting of areas in Lower Austria, Burgenland, southeastern parts of Bohemia, southern parts of Moravia, later expanded with Devín an ...

. On September 1, 1944, the

Reich Defense Commissioner Reich Defense Commissioner (German: ''Reichsverteidigungskommissar'', RVK) was a governmental position created in Nazi Germany at the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939. Charged with overall defense of the territory of the German Reich, th ...

was instructed by

Adolf Hitler's directives Adolf Hitler's directives, or ''Führer'' directives (''Führerbefehle''), were instructions and strategic plans issued by Adolf Hitler himself over the course of World War II. The directives covered a wide range of subjects, from detailed direc ...

to plan and build fortification along the

Reich ( ; ) is a German word whose meaning is analogous to the English word " realm". The terms and are respectively used in German in reference to empires and kingdoms. In English usage, the term " Reich" often refers to Nazi Germany, also ca ...

's borders. In the Styrian region, the defensive line known in German propaganda as the

South-east wall The South-east wall (German: ''Südostwall'') (also known as Reichsschutzstellung) was a system of fortifications planned by Nazi Germany in the late stages of World War II to extend along the Little Carpathians and Lake Neusiedl southwards to the ...

was to be built for this purpose.

Gauleiter A ''Gauleiter'' () was a regional leader of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) who served as the head of a ''Administrative divisions of Nazi Germany, Gau'' or ''Reichsgau''. ''Gauleiter'' was the third-highest Ranks and insignia of the Nazi Party, rank in ...

Siegfried Uiberreither Siegfried Uiberreither (29 March 1908 – 29 December 1984) was an Austrian Nazi ''Gauleiter'' and ''Reichsstatthalter'' of the Reichsgau Styria during the Third Reich. Early life Born in Salzburg, he was the son of an engineer named Josef Üb ...

was responsible for its construction.

Incident and aftermath

The incident occurred on 29 March 1945.Memmott, Mark (17 November 2009).
90-Year-Old Alleged Nazi Charged With 58 Counts Of Murder From 1945 Killings.

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

The victims' remains were found in 1995 by the

Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien The Jewish Community of Vienna ( or IKG) is the body that represents Vienna's Orthodox Jewish community. Today, the IKG has around 10,000 members. Throughout history, it has represented almost all of Austria's Jews, whose numbers are sufficient ...

.Rising, David (17 November 2009).
90-year-old charged in Germany for Nazi-era crimes.

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

In 2008, Viennese political science student

Andreas Forster Andreas () is a name derived from the Greek noun ἀνήρ ''anēr'', with genitive ἀνδρός ''andros'', which means "man". See the article on Andrew for more information. The Scandinavian name is earliest attested as antreos in a runestone ...

discovered the name of

Adolf Storms Adolf (also spelt Adolph or Adolphe, Adolfo, and when Latinised Adolphus) is a given name with German origins. The name is a compound derived from the Old High German ''Athalwolf'' (or ''Hadulf''), a composition of ''athal'', or ''adal'', meani ...

in records of the incident. Forster's professor

Walter Manoschek Walter may refer to: People and fictional characters * Walter (name), including a list of people and fictional and mythical characters with the given name or surname * Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–19 ...

gathered evidence and conducted a videotaped interview with Storms.Staff report (21 October 2008).
Student tracks down Nazi war crimes suspect.
''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' In 2009, then 90-year-old Storms was indicted for his alleged involvement in the killings.Mackey, Robert (17 November 2009).
Former SS Man Charged in 1945 Massacre.
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' Storms died on June 28, 2010, at the age of 90.Associated Press (6 July 2010)
No. 4 Most-Wanted Nazi Dies a Free Man in Germany
Associated Press

References

External links

The massacre of Hungarian-Jewish forced laborers in Deutsch-Schützen (Burgenland) and its judicial prosecution by the Austrian People's Courts

Remembering Deutsch Schützen
Massacres in 1945 Oberwart District The Holocaust in Austria Holocaust massacres and pogroms 1945 murders in Austria March 1945 in Europe Massacres committed by Nazi Germany War crimes of the Waffen-SS Nazi forced labour {{Austria-hist-stub

Historical Background

Incident and aftermath

See also

References

Further reading

External links