Horst Schreiber presents, for the first time, a history of a labour-re-education camp in Austria, drawing on a wide range of sources. He describes the origins of the Reichenau camp complex in Innsbruck, the grounds for internment and the camp’s various functions.

The focus is on the people: their daily life in the camp and their life stories – those of the survivors as well as those who were murdered. The study documents 115 victims who lost their lives, providing their basic biographical details. At the same time, the author turns his attention to the perpetrators, their careers and the legal proceedings following 1945.

How did Tyrolean society deal with this site? The book traces the camp’s subsequent use right up to the late 1960s. It shows how a culture of remembrance developed very late, finding its visible expression in the new ‘Reichenau Memorial, Learning and Information Centre’.