Ukrainian Austrian internment
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The Ukrainian Austrian internment was part of the confinement of enemy aliens in Austria during World War I. Central Camp Talerhof (German: Thalerhof) was a concentration camp operated by the Austro-Hungarian imperial government between 1914 and 1917 in the Austrian province of Styria.
Over twenty thousand Ukrainian supporters of Russia were arrested and imprisoned in the camp and in the fortress of Terezín, Bohemia. The camp housed primarily Russophile individuals and families from Galicia, among whom were at least 1,915 Lemkos (some sources place the figure as high as 5,000) from 151 villages. Of the Lemkos incarcerated, 168 died and numerous others had their health destroyed. All were suspected of collaboration with the advancing tsarist Russian Army that had invaded Galicia at the outset of World War I.
The first group of prisoners was transported to Talerhof by soldiers of Austrian regiment of Graz on September, 4, 1914. Until the winter of 1915, there were no barracks in Talerhof; prisoners slept in the open air on the ground.
On November, 9, 1914, according to the official report of Field Marshal Schleer, there were 5700 Russophiles in Talerhof. In total, 20,000 people were prisoners from September 4, 1914 to May 10, 1917.
In the first year and a half, three thousand prisoners died. In addition, tens of thousands of Russophiles were victims of reprisals carried out by Austro-Hungarian authorities in the Western Ukraine during World War I. In May 1917, the camp was closed by order of Emperor Charles I (r. 1916-1918).
