Memorial Givat Avoda for Jewish Displaced Persons before the Wallner Barracks

The memorial site “Givat Avoda” (in German: Hügel der Arbeit) commemorates Jewish displaced persons and war refugees (so-called Displaced Persons), who resided in the similarly named camp between 1946 and 1948. After the end of the war in 1945, the premises of the current Anton-Wallner-Camp were initially used to accommodate displaced ethnic Germans from Yugoslavia. It is likely that the first Jewish Displaced Persons moved into the camp between 24 August and 27 September 1946. Although the camp was under US-American administration, it had its own camp leadership, composed of Jewish members of the “Bricha” (Organization of Holocaust survivors, aimed at bringing Jews and Jewish women to Palestine), as well as a camp police force. In total, approximately 3,000 Jews and Jewish women stayed in the camp “Givat Avoda” until 1948, whose primary goal was to arrive in Palestine or, in the case of 1948, in the newly founded Israel. The population of Saalfelden held a skeptical to hostile attitude towards the Jewish refugees; complaints about alleged theft and supposed begging occurred repeatedly. Furthermore, records from the community archives show that the camp inmates were viewed as food competitors and cynically as “seekers of relaxation.” From summer 1947 onwards, the complaints decreased, which may be attributed to people having adjusted to the situation, as well as to the fact that the Jewish refugees gradually began to leave Saalfelden and Austria.