Seite - 812 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

812 Camps camps and otherwise, Bohemia (including Prague) more than 96,000, Moravia 57,000, Styria over 25,000, Upper Austria 12,000 and all other regions far fewer.1901 Then the peak appeared to have been reached. At the end of May 1915, there were ‘only’ 224,460 refugees from the east in Austria.1902 Here and there, people had grown accustomed to the sight of the refugees. Above all in the large cities, they  – at least occasionally  – got lost in the masses. Wherever their accommodation was crowded, however, they were doubtless a foreign body. In the smaller towns and in the rural communities their strange appearance, especially of the refugees from the east, repeatedly caused a stir. Despite all the efforts of the Ministry of the Interior, the level of acceptance did not increase during the course of the months and, eventually, years. On the contrary : people were irked by the unfamiliar clothing and the languages that had been unknown until then, and they sneered at the conventions and customs. Who had ever seen the Polish and Ruthenian Galicians or the Hutsuls before, or knew something about the Lipovans or the Mennonites ?1903 Anti-Semitism was encountered wherever large groups of Jews were found in the re- ception areas. It should be kept in mind, however, that rejection and resentment only began to express themselves more strongly once the flow of refugees appeared to be never-ending and the locals were doubtlessly overwhelmed here and there. It is also correct, however, that spontaneous aid committees were set up, and that national au- thorities did everything to generate understanding for the exceptional situation and to urge consideration for the religious, social and cultural otherness. Here it was a question of finding employment for the refugees, teaching the children, improving the accommodation and countering the burgeoning tensions between the refugees and the locals, but also among the refugees themselves.1904 This seemed easiest to accomplish in camps. As problematic and far-reaching as it was, the systematic registration was therefore in the interests of the refugees and forced evacuees. This had to be acknowledged above all by those who had sought to go into hiding whilst still in Galicia or somewhere on the run from the war, since they could of course not make a claim for financial support. Neither option was ideal : going into hiding and remaining on the run or residing in a camp. And, of course, the solution of accommodating the same and like-minded people together also had its drawbacks. New categories were repeatedly created and new places of abode sought and as- signed. From May 1915, refugees who did not receive a secure income had to prove that they had at least 500 kronen in cash for each family member. If this was not the case, they were sent to a camp. Since the camps were soon overcrowded and new refugees were thronging into the interior of Austria, at the beginning of May 1915, as many as 5,000 Poles were distributed among different summer resorts in Styria, 1,500 Poles were sent to the city of Salzburg, and 1,500 to Linz and its surroundings. 5,000 Jews were divided between different summer resorts in Carinthia. Apartments in Graz, Linz