Page - 828 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

828 Camps above all, Russian prisoners of war were also repeatedly seen from the perspective, and accordingly treated, that a rapidly escalating number of Austro-Hungarian soldiers had conversely also fallen into the hands of the enemy and it was hoped that they would be treated similarly (well) to those who were in one’s own custody. This of course did not exclude that during the course of the so-called ‘retaliatory measures’ an inhumane treatment was positively ordered. When, in January 1916, it became known what kind of fate the Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war had suffered who had been taken to Al- bania by the Serbs on the run, the Imperial and Royal Army High Command decreed that the Serbian prisoners of war detailed to work in the rebuilding of the Przemyśl fortress were to be treated ‘with no regard for humanity’ and forced to work ‘using the most severe methods, possibly [also] with physical punishment’.1967 The tensions subsided again, and Russians, Serbs, Montenegrins and then Italians and Russians replaced the servants and agricultural hands, worked in industry both in the vicinity and further afield, produced goods for the army’s requirements, regulated rivers and were employed in the construction of roads and railways. During the spring cultivation of the fields, most of the other occupations had to take a back seat in fa- vour of the field work. Then, however, the prisoners again produced commodities in the workshops, weaved shoes and crafted carvings. In this way they were occasionally able to earn a few extra heller. It was above all the Russians who were ultimately re- garded not only as a sort of necessary evil but also as honourable fellow human beings, ‘quiet, harmless [and] somewhat slow in their work’. Eventually, it was above all those who were almost indispensable labourers who were ‘in no way [made to] feel like they [were] in enemy territory’.1968 Initially, the Russians had been negligibly remunerated, as was foreseen by the Hague Convention on Land Warfare. Subalterns received 4 kronen and soldiers a mere 24 heller each day. Since the news came from Russia, however, that the Russians for their part denied the Austro-Hungarian prisoners the payment of wages, this was also abolished in Austria. From mid-1915, money was paid again, since the intention was to create an incentive. The farmers and the factories utilising prisoners of war had to pay the treasury a basic wage per head and per worker. Capitalism thus found its way into the prison camps. The prisoners were also to be paid for overtime, i.e. work that exceeded eight hours a day. Since the prisoners were so evidently useful, the transfer of prisoners of war and their evacuation, for example that of the camp inmates from Feldbach to Hungary from June 1915 on, was viewed with regret. If the camps were emptied because the prisoners of war were drafted for work duty or relocated, then it did not as a rule last very long before the camps filled up again. Sigmundsherberg, for example, was converted from May 1916 from a Russian camp into an Italian camp. On 18 June 1916, it was once again filled to capacity.1969 Four