Construction of apartments in the refugee camp in Spittal an der Drau (source: Stieber) |
Construction of single-family houses funded by UNHCR* construction of single-family houses in Spittal on the Drau (source: Stieber)
*UN High Commisioner for Refugees |
Barracks in the camp Spittal an der Drau (source: Stieber)
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Jan. 16, 2014 Hi Olga,
My parents were born in Slovenia, they flight with my grandparents in May 1945 through the Loibltunnel to Carinthia and stayed with 20.000 Slovenians on the fields in Viktring, when the British military promised to bring them to Italy. But the trucks go back to Yugoslavia and more than 12.000 Slovenian were murdered.
On June 29th, 1945, all refugees came from Viktring to DP camps in Spittal, St. Veit and Lienz/Peggetz. My father (12 years old) came with the first train to Spittal, my mother (8 years) came to Lienz and in November 1946 with all the other refugges from Lienz to Spittal.
My parents are still living in Spittal and are helping everybody, who wants to know something about the living in the DP camps near Spittal. There were camps in Treffling/Seeboden, in Seebach/Seeboden für TBC patients, in Feffernitz (german-speaking refugees), Kellerberg (Hungarian), Villach/St. Martin and specially in Spittal and Lienz/Peggetz. They help to get birth documents, to find the grave of grandparents, to show the locations.
On your website the DP camp Peggetz/Lienz is named for Slovenian, but all informations and fotos are from the Cossacks, the Cossacks cemetery and their meetings every year.
This camp was built in 1938 and was a camp for POW. In the days 5 – 8th May 1945 there came the Cossacks from Italy (Tolmezzo – Timau – Plöckenpass – Lienz), maybe there were more than 40,000 Cossacks in the Drau valley, soldiers with wives, children and horses.
On June 1st, 1945 and the next days, the British military force them to get in the train – to send them back to the Russian cone at the bridge in Judenburg. The camp got empty.
On June 29th, trains stopped again near Peggetz. They brought more than 2000 Slovenians to stay in this camp for more than 16 months. Than they were brought to the DP camp in Spittal an der Drau.
Now this area is an industry area. The Cossacks were here only 4 weeks, and the people in Lienz know the story of the massacre. But it is hard to find somebody who nothing about Slovenian in Lienz/Peggetz.
This are only the essential information.
We will be glad to get reactions from all over the world, especially from Slovenian refugees and there descendants. We also organized sightseeing tours in Carinthia and PowerPoint presentations about living in the DP camps.
Sincerly
Johanna Kronawetter, born Starman johanna.kronawetter@aon.at www.nakul.biz
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