Fridolfing was initially established as a 'Labour Education Camp', located in Weyer, Austria, in the principality of Haigermoos. From 1941 onwards it served as an internment camp for Roma gypsies.

 

In its early days as an internment camp, it was administered by the Gaufürsorgeverband (Reich Governor of the Lower Danube) and later commanded by August Steininger. The prisoners were organised into work details and deployed on various tasks relating to the regulation of the River Moosach, such as drainage and other works. Letters written by local Gauleiter August Eigruber, and also by an appointed Nazi Party official named Franz Kubinger, instructed all mayors in the Oberdonau district as to who should be interned in the camp:

 

“Admitted can be such fellow citizens, that on principle refuse work, that skip work, that constantly cause disturbances at the work site, or that refuse any taking up of work at all, despite being physically fit. They all, however, have to have reached the age of 18. Also “anti social” managing directors are included. Only cases of criminal nature cannot be covered in this setting. And serious cases of invalids, as hard physical labors have to be performed."

 

This essentially meant that any person regarded as 'disagreeable' could be interned at the camp. For example, Karl Grumpelmaier, the manager of a large woodworking business, was interned because he refused to purchase a German Labour Front banner. Two teenage prisoners, Oskar Heinrich and Heinrich Müller, were brought in because they had refused to participate in the sports activities organised by the local paper mill. Both were under 18, which meant that their internment (as 'anti-socials') was technically illegal.

 

Only when inmates reached the camp were they informed as to the reasons for their arrest. Steininger regularly treated his prisoners violently. Harsh treatment was dealt to them by members of SA-Standarte 159 from Braunau am Inn, categorised officially as 'education'. The SA became increasingly brutal, the first to die being Johann Gabauer from Julback. An extract from a medical history shows that a number of inmates were admitted to nearby hospitals:

 

“Welts were discovered all over the body. E. temporarily regained conscience at the hospital and related that he had been thrown into the water repeatedly. He died on September 4th 1940. The chief doctor initiated a post-mortem examination, in which superficial and bleeding damages of the epithelial layer were detected spread all over the back, especially on the protruding parts of the back, the back of the head and the upper arm. They apparently are the results of physical abuse."

 

The treatment inflicted on the prisoners appears to have been so brutal that even the Nazi Party authorities in Berlin were forced to assess the camp (although it may also have been a case of wanting to avoid adverse publicity). According to information on the Weyer camp website, The death of a prisoner on 27th December 1940 appears to have triggered the investigation by prosecutor Reid Im Innkreis, following an autopsy that found evidence of torture. Previous to this, neither the SA nor the Nazi Gau appears to have known what was going on there.

 

The camp physician, Alois Staufer, who issued false death certificates, tried to avoid blame when he was brought before a local court. However, the Nazi Ministery of Justice in Berlin closed the camp in 1941 after hearing cases against Staufer and a number of other camp officials, including the Nazi official Franz Kubinger and district superintendent Stefan Schachermayer.

 

The charges against them include manslaughter, gross physical abuse, confinement of individuals under the age of 18 and confinement of individuals that couldn't be declared as 'reluctant to work'.

 

In response, the Gauleitung appealed for the charges to be abolished. This was agreed by Hitler himself with respect to five of the defendants, the charges against them being dismissed on 16th April 1942.  

 

Thereafter, some of the prisoners were released after swearing an oath of silence, but the remainder were sent to other concentration camps.

 

The camp was reopened in January 1941 and was thereafter used to detain more than 350 Austrian Roma and Sinti gypsies, being reclassified as a Gypsy Detention Camp, similar to that at Lackenbach in Burgenland, which was established at about the same time. The SA guards were replaced by a gendarmerie officer and 10 police reservists. The camp commandant was an officer from the Criminal Investigation department and administration was handled by SA-Sturmfuhrer Gottfried Hamberger.

 

More than half the prisoners were women and children with the dead being deposited in the gravediggers cell at the Haigermoos cemetery. The bodies were literally dumped there amongst shovels and pots and other groundskeeping equipment until they could be buried, usually at night in unmarked graves. When the camp was closed a second time on 4th November 1941, the survivors were loaded into cattle trucks and transported by rail to the gypsy camp at Litzmannstadt Ghetto in Lodz, Poland. None of them survived.

 

It took until 1952 for a People's Court lawsuit to fully investigate and try the guilty in this case. This was primarily due to the flight of the two key defendants. Convictions were finally settled ranging between 15 months and 15 years imprisonment with August Steininger receiving a sentence of two years and six months.

 

Unfortunately, all the defendants had been released by 1955, due to the amnesty for the ten-year for the ten-year existence of the Second Republic. The Austrian political parties pleaded for leniency with regard to former Nazis at national elections, and so from 1950 they were often allowed to participate in local community politics.

 

The chronicles of the history of St Pantaleon were published in 1979, but it was only in the late 1980's that people began to discover what had really gone on there. Local author Ludwig Laher and historian Andreas Maislinger arranged for the erection of a memorial, designed by artist Dieter Schmidt. This was officially inaugurated in 2000 and is currently maintained by the municipality of St Pantaleon and the Memorial Site Camp Weyer Society.

 

References/Further reading:

 

Weyer Camp website (Erinnerungsstatte Lager Weyer)

 

Andreas Maislinger: Ergänzung einer Ortschronik, in: Österreich in Geschichte und Literatur mit Geographie, May–June/July–August 1988, booklet 3/4