For young and old Lemko-Rusyns alike, the word Thalerhof still provokes a bitter feeling of resentment. It is the name of a concentration camp that no longer exists in a physical sense. It is a place where an untold amount of the greatest thinkers and activists of the Rusyn people would die from disease, executions and hypothermia. To add insult to injury for those that survived, the events that unfolded inside the camp would end up being brushed aside and hidden. An airport now stands on the ground where the camp once stood.

The Thalerhof Internment Camp was opened in 1914 at the start of the First World War and created with the official purpose of imprisoning those sympathetic to the Russian Empire. Though no part of the Austrian Empire was unaffected, the historical region of Galicia was the primary victim of this effort. Now split between Poland and Ukraine, the area had historically been associated with Kievan Rus’ before its absorption into the Kingdom of Poland in the mid-1300s. As the centuries passed, Galicia (or “Halychyna” as Rusyns and Ukrainians call it) became a highly diverse region. Whilst Ruthenians were mainly peasants, a Polish aristocracy made up the majority of land owners and population in cities like Lviv.

Continue reading: https://neweasterneurope.eu/2021/09/15/the-thalerhof-internment-camp-and-its-legacy-for-the-rusyns-of-eastern-europe/