Founded in 2020, the aim of the research group is to locate, systematically record and research camps and camp-like facilities built on the territory of today’s Lower Austria by means of inter- and transdisciplinary approaches. During the wars and dictatorships of the 20th century, a large number of people were temporarily confined to camps and in extreme cases even murdered, particularly in the Nazi concentration camps. Forced and unforced migrations, repression and social experiments were the side effects of war, which made camps a symbol of modernity. Zygmunt Bauman coined the 20th century as the “century of camps”, yet certain types of camp remain omnipresent in the 21st century.
Otherwise, distinct fields of research such as research on prisoners of war, concentration camp inmates, forced laborers, re-education camps for the conversion of the “German people”, DPs and refugees interlink within the network. This approach investigates in a more differentiated manner than it has before various functions as well as continuities, discontinuities and aspects of knowledge transfer in the history and development of this spatial instrument of power and domination. The “inner worlds” of the camps, the subjective experiences associated with the camp confinement, the practices of how people dealt with the respective camp conditions as well as the interweaving of selected camps with their direct and indirect surroundings are explored in the context of site-specific case studies. In order to create a sound knowledge foundation (basic research), the research project pays special attention to saving sources (documentation and archives) and available knowledge about the camps and the groups of people confined to them.
The interested public can participate in the production of knowledge (“Citizen Science” and “digital research platform”) when equally important questions arise in terms of cultural memories, the transfer of knowledge, and in enabling innovative formats to develop.
Head of the research group: Edith Blaschitz (2020-2022: Dieter Bacher)
Ongoing Projects:
- Project: “Lagerunterbringung in der sowjetischen Besatzungszone Österreichs: Nachkriegsgeschichte und Erinnerung”
Project management: Barbara Stelzl-Marx (BIK)
Project team: Dieter Bacher (BIK), Katharina Bergmann (BIK), Hannes Leidinger (BIK), Martin Sauerbrey (BIK), Anne Unterwurzacher (IAI)
Project period: January 2022 – December 2024
Funding body: FWF
Further Information: Neues FWF-Forschungsprojekt; siehe auch FV Migration
- Project: “NS-‘Volksgemeinschaft’ und Lager im Zentralraum Niederösterreich”
Project management: Martha Keil (INJOEST)
Project team: Janina Böck-Koroschitz (INJOEST), Tina Frischmann (INJOEST), Christoph Lind (INJOEST), Philipp Mettauer (INJOEST), Edith Blaschitz (UWK), Karin Böhm
Project period: January 2022 – December 2024
Funding body: NÖ Landesregierung
Further Information: NS-Lager Niederösterreich
Completed Projects:
- Project: “Spuren lesbar machen im NS-Zwangsarbeiterlager Roggendorf/Pulkau – Labor zu Kunst, Partizipation und digitalen Räumen”
Project team: Rosa Andraschek (Künstlerin), Clemens Baumann (FH St. Pölten), Edith Blaschitz (UWK), Martin Krenn (artist), Wolfgang Gasser (INJOEST), Thomas Moser (FH St. Pölten), Sylvie Petrovic-Majer (OpenGLAM) , Alexander Schlager (FH St. Pölten), Heidemarie Uhl (ÖAW), Georg Vogt (FH St. Pölten), Daniela Wagner (UWK).
Project period: November 2021 – December 2022 (extension until 2023)
Funding body: Landesregierung Niederösterreich & Bundesministerium für Kunst, Kultur, öffentlicher Dienst und Sport
Further Information: Spuren lesbar machen
Publications:
- Dieter Bacher, Refugees as Informants – “WRINGER” and Hungarian Refugees in Austria, in: Magdolna Barath – Dieter Bacher (eds.), A frontline of espionage. Studies on Hungarian Cold War intelligence in Austria. Budapest 2021 (in print).
