Im Flüchtlingslager Nikolsburg: "Weib und Kinder" (Woman and Children)

Max Pollak

From the spring of 1915, the Austro-Hungarian Empire found itself fighting on three distinct fronts: Russia, Serbia, and Italy. The majority of the border regions were therefore absorbed into the so-called “war zone.” Moreover, between 1914 and 1915, vast portions of Habsburg territory had been invaded. The population was on the move.

A refugee barracks that housed around 4000 Galician Jews was established in Nikolsburg (Mikulov), Moravia in poor conditions that included an epidemic of measles. As an "official" government artist Pollak had free access to the camp and, in 1914, recorded it in a series of small drypoints, which were published in 1915 in a portfolio titled "Im Barackenlager Nikolsburg" (In the Barrack Camp at Nikolsburg).

This image is of a family group refugees in a barracks. A mother and her two children sit on the floor of the barracks, huddling together under blankets. A light illuminates their alloted space, a small comfort.