Satellite Camp Vöcklabruck-Wagrain
Establishment of the satellite camp
The subcamp was established by order of the DEST GmbH as a basis for different types of work in the area of the district capital - mainly road construction. Vöcklabruck-Wagrain Subcamp was established on 6 June 1941. There was also another sub-detachment of Schlier-Redl-Zipf Subcamp in Vöcklabruck. The subcamp existed between 30 September 1943 and 24 March 1945 and its history has hardly been explored.
Location
Wagrain Subcamp was where the bus parking lot, the school complex and the district gymnasium can be found today. The access road, which was unpaved back then, is assumed to have been at the beginning of Bahnhofstraße towards the gymnasium. At the beginning of the access road, there was a small SS guard post, and an SS barrack behind it. At a given distance, circumscribed by barbed wire fence, was the camp proper, with seven or eight barracks and a roll call ground in the middle.
Prisoners
On 6 June 1941, it is assumed that 297 Spanish Republicans, two Germans, and one Moroccan arrived at Wagrain Subcamp. The prisoners were put in barracks with two rooms each. The Camp Senior was determined by the prisoners: it was a man named Caesar - and after him, the entire Vöcklabruck work detachment was named: “Caesar-detachment”.
Forced labor
There were between five and seven detachments, who distributed the tasks and monitored their implementation. The prisoners had to work in road construction (detachments “Straßenbau I” and “Straßenbau II”); they also did clean-up work assigned by civilians, work in bridge construction (detachments “Vöcklabrücke”, “Agerbrücke”, “Tiefenweg”), and on the construction of a water pipeline. Moreover, they worked in the gravel quarry in Attang-Puchheim.
Guarding
Around 30 SS soldiers were responsible for the guard of the camp. There is no information about the camp leader. Before and after their work, the prisoners had to assemble for roll call.
Schließung
On 14 May 1942, the commissioned work was completed and the “Caesar detachment” was shut down by the SS. The prisoners were brought to Ternberg to work on the construction of a power plant.
Commemoration and remembrance
In 1988, the Mauthausen Committee Vöcklabruck [1] erected a memorial stone on the site of the former camp, in front of the district gymnasium in Wagrain. The local branch of the Mauthausen Committee Austria organises an annual memorial ceremony [2].
