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 SOPRONNYEK
(K. u. k. Kriegsgefangenenlager Sopronnyék)
35.000–40.000 (25.000+3.000 Serb) internees Concentration Camp Sopronnyék, “Imperial and Royal Camp for Prisoners of War Sopronnyék”, (Kaiserliches und Königliches Kriegsgefangenenlager Sopronnyék), was another camp in the vicinity of Nezsider lake, on the territory of what was then Hungary. It was built by the order of the military command from Pozsony (Bratislava) from 5. April 1915. on a hill in Samersdorf, 12 km away from the current settlement of Neckenmarkt. It was initially planned for 15 000 persons, but already at the start of 1916. it had 70 big barracks with 17 390 persons. Until the end of 1918. the camp was enlarged to 500 barracks, among which a certain number was for medical purposes, so it had somewhat better hygienic conditions from other camps, in it were primarily interned Serbian POWs and internees [interned civilians, translator’s note], then Russian, Italian, Romanian and other POWs. According to the Austrian journal [Floiger et al. 2011] by the end of the war 35 000 – 40 000 persons went through this concentration camp.
Serbs were transferred here, and mostly so civilians rather than POWs, via the concentration camp Doboj from Bosnia and Herzegovina, then from Serbia and Montenegro. As was noted by Ćorović [1920, 1996] just after the war, “Sopronnyék mostly received women and children from the eastern parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and a great number ended there out of exhaustion and suffering. At one point there were around 8000 of our people interned there.” Stojiljković wrote similarly later [1995]: “In October 1916. Sopronnyék had 25 000 Serbian POWs and 3000 internees from Bosnia, among which were 250 children”, with the note that a very small number of Serbs was in the camp itself, because almost “all of them were labouring on the agricultural estates”. With that in mind an incomplete list [Serbian National Archive 1914–1918б] registered 5175 Serbian soldiers and civilians buried in 114 locations on the current Hungarian territory.
Translated by Books of Jeremiah
