March, 1938, German nazi-troops occupied Austria.

During World War II Austria and within Burgenland were part of the German Reich. Tobias Portschy had obtained national-socialist government in Eisenstadt as a „Gauleiter" in March, 1938 for just half a year. Since October 1938, Burgenland has been divided up between Styria and Lower Austria (Lower Danube). The words „Austria and Burgenland" were extinguished.

Under national-socialist government political opponents were

prosecuted and brought into concentration camps like Dachau near München. Among them there were the former governor of Burgenland Hans Sylvester, who even died there, and the later governor Johann Wagner. Jewish and gipsies were also prosecuted for „racial reasons"; the latter were brought into a certain gipsies camp („Zigeunerlager") in Lackenbach, so that they were isolated from the other Burgenländers (that’s what nazi propaganda said).

Thousands of young male Burgenländers had to leave their families, their wives, children, parents, brothers and sisters fighting somewhere in Norway, France, Italy or later in the Soviet Union for the idea of a huge German Reich; many of them got captivated, some are still missing, a great number of young Burgenländers died in the war. 64 men from Eisenhüttl near Güssing had to serve, 32 of them never came back. 1536 soldiers from 36 villages in the Bezirk Güssing were killed in the war.

March 29th, 1945, on Easter Monday, the Russian army marched into Burgenland near Klostermarienberg. This is how war action came into our country, three days later 40 Russian tanks came into Eisenstadt.

July 1945, the former Austria was occupied by the allied troops: the French started to take over administration in Vorarlberg and Tyrol, US troops in Salzburg and the greater part of Upper Austria, British in Carinthia and Styria and the Soviet troops in Lower Austria, in the Mühlviertel north of Linz and in Burgenland. The Iron Curtain between Burgenland and Hungary was set up, separating people, who had been living peacefully as neighbours for centuries! It was not until 1955 that the allied left Austria and made it an independent country again, after the Staatsvertrag (treaty between five countries) was signed.

October 1st, 1945, Burgenland was restored as a Bundesland (Austrian province) of its own. Indeed, it was hard work to bring the northern and the southern part of Burgenland together. There was still no street connecting both!

People, in fact, were suffering from the Russian occupation. The stores were empty, salt, sugar, matches, even wood (in the Seewinkel) and fuel were rare, food was rationed. So many people - especially in the greater cities - had to get the stuff illegally („Schleichhandel"). Due to lack of rain in 1945 it was hard to feed the cattle. March 1946, the allies and some other countries like the United States, Canada, Ireland, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark helped and sent food to Burgenland.

In the 1950’s things grew better. The governors Lorenz Karall (1946-1956) and Johann Wagner (1956-1961) made hard efforts to industrialize the rural country, so that the young could stay. Apartment houses, schools and streets were built to improve infrastructure and education.

October 1956, a new challenge came over the Burgenländers. When Hungarian politicians tried to resist Russian superiority, Soviet troops entered Budapest for „fraternal purposes". After this 200.000 Hungarians fled to Burgenland, most of them via the „Bridge of Andau" (described by the American author James Michener in his novel of the same name). In these days, Burgenländers proved themselves as courageous and broadminded people.

Mag. Walter Dujmovits, jun.

To be continued.