St. Pantaleon-Weyer concentration camp

The former Labor Education and Gypsy Detention Camp stands in Weyer, a hamlet near Haigermoos in Upper Austria. It was first set up in July 1940 as a camp for people labelled ‘work-shy’ or ‘anti-social’. In January 1941 the site was renamed and used to imprison more than 350 Austrian Sinti and Roma. A simple memorial now marks the spot where these buildings once stood. The camp’s brief history reveals systematic violence and disregard for human life. Prisoners were forced to drain and straighten the local river Moosach under brutal supervision. Medical records show inmates beaten until they died, their injuries described as wounds ‘all over the body’. After the war, a few officials faced trial, receiving sentences from fifteen months to fifteen years, though most served far less. Visitors today find a quiet field with a modest memorial stone. The surrounding farmland stretches away from the site, its peaceful appearance at odds with what happened here. A short walk leads to the nearby cemetery where some victims were secretly buried at night. The contrast between the tranquil landscape and the camp’s past remains a quiet but powerful reminder.