Original research paper by Mirčeta Vemić, Institute of Geography “Jovan Cvijić”, Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences: http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0352-5732/2014/0352-57321447201V.pdf
UDC 94(100)”1914/1918″
UDC 343.819.5(=163.41)(493.5)”1914/1918″
DOI: 10.2298/ZMSDN1447201V
CONCENTRATION CAMP BRAUNAU (CZECH – BROUMOV)
(K. u. k. Kriegsgefangenenlager Braunau)
35 000 internees, 2674 Serb grave sites
Concentration Camp Braunau (Czech – Broumov) or the “Imperial and Royal Camp for Prisoners of War Braunau” (Kaiserliches und Königliches Kriegsgefangenenlager Braunau), was in the settlement of Broumov at the north-east of Czechia in the Hradec Králové region close to the Polish border. Concurrently there was another camp with a similar name on the territory of Austria, Braunau on Inn (K. u. k. Kriegsgefangenenlager Braunau am Inn), which was exclusively for Russian POWs. The concentration camp Braunau in Bohemia (Czechia) was formed on 11. June 1915. that is at the same time as the camp in Jindřichovice. Serbian and Russian POWs and Serb internees [interned civilians, translator’s note] were imprisoned there. According to research by Opačić [1994] “35 000 persons were deported to that camp”. Among them American humanitarians found 1500 boys ages 8 to 17 at the start of 1916.
They were separated in special sections, where they had classes based on the Austro-Hungarian educational system, similar to those in the camps in Nagymegyer, Nezsider or Heinrichsgrün. Opačić states that it was exclusively Serb children and that the number in this camp rose up to 2000 children. The camp regime was similar to Jindřichovice, making the mortality rate similar. In the Yugoslav Archive [1921б] there is a situational sketch of the cemetery which was left behind this concentration camp. On the 1:250 scale sketch there were drawn and marked 2674 grave sites, together with mass graves, in which laid Serb sufferers, of which 2599 were exhumed and transferred to the memorial ossuary in Jindřichovice. However, due to the underground waters in the graves, some could not be exhumed.
Translated by Books of Jeremiah
