The Lost Village of Döllersheim in Döllersheim, Austria

In March 1938, Austria was annexed to Germany. This created a large new catchment area to recruit soldiers for the Wehrmacht. A practice area was urgently needed for this. The choice was an area of around 20,000 hectares in the Austrian Waldviertel, which is still the largest military training area in Austria today. In order to implement the military training area project, more than 40 towns, among them the village Döllersheim, first mentioned in 1143, and surrounding farms were expropriated. More than 6,800 people were displaced between 1938 and 1941. The choice of the area did not happen by

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