The largest Prisoner of War (POW) camp of World War Two on the territory of present-day Austria was located near the City of Krems: Stalag XVII B Krems-Gneixendorf. There is hardly anything left to see of it today.

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For two and a half years, I repeatedly visited this area. My perseverant engagements with the site resulted in a photographic observation and survey. I found relics of the past, abandonment to overgrown nature, as well as contemporary usages of the site and plotted these using geo-coordinates.

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Parallel to my work, the historian and cultural studies scholar Edith Blaschitz researched historical sources pertaining to Stalag XVII B. The perspectives of the internees, their contacts with the local population, and engagements with the memory of the camp formed the focal point of this research project.

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In the book I wove my survey of the present-day site together with the historical documents and current reactions emerging from the research project – photographs, drawings, letters, emails, interviews, diary entries, maps, and documentation – to create a dense visual-textual ensemble. Four chapters, beginning with quotes and personal notes, are dedicated to the POWs, their deployment for labor, the camp personnel, and the search of descendants.

Selected aspects of this complex artistic “visual-textual-mosaic” are analyzed by the art historian and visual scholar Viola Rühse in the concluding essay

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The book was published by Verlag Bibliothek der Provinz.

It is available in an English and a German edition. 

Take a look into the book here: English and German.

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