The stein penitentiary massacre of april 1945 in the media’s coverage of the war crimes trial and in the novel by ROBERT STREIBEL

Abstract

On 6 April 1945 over 220 political prisoners from the Stein Penitentiary as well as three antifascist prison guards and the prison director were shot by Nazi guards and members of the Volkssturm, the Waffen-SS and the Wehrmacht in order to prevent the release of all prisoners as ordered by the prison management. The same day in Krems an der Donau and its surroundings dozens of inmates were killed with the active participation of the local population (this event became known as the ‚Kremser Hasenjagd‘ – lit. ,Krems hare hunt‘).

ROBERT STREIBELs’ novel April in Stein, a literary exploration of this atrocity committed during the final months of the war, was first published in 2015. After a brief outline of the events that took place in Stein-Krems in April 1945 and their representation in media coverage of the War Crimes Trial before the Austrian People’s Court in August 1946, this paper will discuss how the author approaches this range of complex topics.