Mausoleum at Jindřichovice

Between 1915 and 1918 Jindřichovice (German: Heinrichsgrün, Bohemia) was the location of one of the largest prisoner-of-war camps in the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire during World War I, where about 40,000 prisoners-of-war passed. The camp held Italians, Russians, but mostly Serbs – both soldiers and civilians – captured by the Austro-Hungarian army during the Serbia campaign and transported by rail to the camp. The prisoners were from all parts of Serbia, but mostly from the Šumadija and Kolubara districts of Western Serbia.

Testimonies regarding the circumstances in the camp can be found in Henri Habert’s book “Entre les fils barbelés: D’après les récits des évadés Serbes” (Amsterdam, 1919), for which he interviewed Serbs who were repatriated via Netherlands in 1919. 28-year-old private Gvozden Andrić from Duškovci (Užice district) who served in the X regiment infantry, IV company, IV battalion, was taken prisoner in October 1915: “I managed to escape into the mountains, but the Austrians discovered me, and captured me. They brought me to Heinrichsgrün, where I stayed for 4 months. The camp held 25-30,000 men, among which 5-600 of our officers”. Borisav Nastasović, soldier in the medical service of the VII regiment infantry, who was born in Braničevo near Požarevac adds: “Life was extremely difficult, the food as bad as one can imagine, a piece of bread, watery soup, we couldn’t move our feet or maltreatment would follow. The Hungarians were the worst, as far as beating is concerned.” Also Jerotije Župac, a 38-year-old sergeant in the XII regiment infantry, I company, IV battalion Šumadija-division, who originates from Novo Selo near Kruševac, and who was taken prisoner by the Austrians in November 1915 complains about the treatment: “the food that was issued was: in the morning one liter of ersatz coffee (black water, no sugar), in the afternoon: a portion of beetroot or cabbage, in the evening: a portion of flour soup (possibly made from acorns)”. 24-year-old soldier Sava Rajčić from Petrovac served in the IX regiment infantry, IV company, II battalion, Drina division when he was captured by the enemy near Glavica on 16 October 1915. He ended up in Heinrichsgrün, where he would stay 5-6 months: “The food was very bad, we would get ½ a loaf of bread for 2 days. We would not get clothes nor shoes, most of us were walking around in rags and barefooted. One barrack would hold 150-200 of us. The winter was very severe: in every barrack there were two stoves, which were almost never lit. One can imagine how terribly cold it was, if one thinks of large wooden barracks, where the wind would roar through the cracks, causing us to be cold all night and not even able to sleep. The guards were treating us inhumanely, they thought of us as beasts of burden, and would mercilessly beat us up for the slightest peccadillo. Many of our soldiers died from their wounds, or have become mutilated. The Hungarian guards beat me with their rifle butts on the head, the back and arms, because I had said that we were not conquered, and that our king was still leading his army. As a result of the caning I became permanently handicapped on my right arm”.

The PoWs were forced to work in harsh conditions: they built a water reservoir for the camp, worked in a quarry, constructed roads and bridges, and built a chemical plant in Falkenau (Sokolov), a town at about 20 km. to which they were marched and back every day.

Conditions in the camp were harsh, cold and disease ravaged, killing up to 40 people per day. Every day at 3 PM a sad procession of the dead went to a nearby common grave, where the remains of the victims of all ages were reposed.