Memorial Cross and Memorial Stones on the Storage Cemetery Kaisersteinbruch/Sommerein

In the prisoner of war camp Kaisersteinbruch, Stalag XVII A, prisoners were held from September 1939 onwards. The prisoners came from Poland, Belgium, France, Serbia, Italy, the United Kingdom, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, and especially from the Soviet Union. Due to overcrowding, lack of food, unhygienic living conditions, poor clothing, and inadequate medical care, approximately 10,000 prisoners died, of whom approximately 9,500 were from the Soviet Union. For the numerous dead, a camp cemetery had to be established west of the camp near the municipal boundary between Kaisersteinbruch and Sommerein.

In the years 1989/90, in cooperation with the Schwarzen Kreuz, the Federal Ministry of the Interior, and the Lower Austrian State Government, an extensive renovation and redesign of the site was carried out. As part of this, a cross approximately six meters high was erected not far from the entrance in the northern area of the site. On both sides, there are two memorials with commemorative plaques that refer to the cemetery and the renovation work carried out in 1989/90.