Bad Gastein

A small Jewish DP camp in the American occupied zone of Austria, Bad Gastein was a requisitioned hotel and requisitioned homes. Bad Gastein was comprised of five hotels that constituted the DPs living quarters. The camp possessed an elementary school, a People’s University, and a high school that provided extensive vocational training programs that were open to both adolescents and adults. The students were trained in tailoring, millinery, barbering, photography, leather production, shoe making and repair, carpentry and cabinet making, and home economics. Bad Gastein also embraced the fine arts as it maintained a dramatic theater group as well as a chorale ensemble. The camp also had a synagogue and a Talmud Torah that provided religious education to the primary and elementary school children.

Several Jewish DPs from other camps like Ebensee moved to Bad Gastein, which could accommodate over 2,000 people.

In the late 1940s, Bad Gastein’s DP hospital, Hofgastein, was considered to be one of the most modern centers of medical treatment in Europe. The hospital’s equipment provided for surgical treatment, physiotherapy, and obstetrics, among other things. Hofgastein also maintained X-ray machines for the DP inmates.

Bad Gastein was administered by UNNRA, the U.S. Army’s 232d Infantry Regiment, and a People’s Committee. The committee was composed of 25 elected members: 5 members from each of the five hotels. The committee acted as a liaison between UNRRA authorities and the camp population. On March 25, 1946, its closing date, Bad Gastein was comprised of approximately 1,330 Jews.