Figure 1.--This photograph is unidentified. It looks to have been taken in the early 1930s. It could be a boarding school or an orphanage dormitory. We think, however, it may be youth group facility where the boys could stay on a trip. Notice the banner on the wall.

We note quite a few institutional group photographs of German and Austrian children. We think the trends are very similar in both countries. Most of the group photographs of course are photographs at school, often class groups. We also note what look like boarding school photographs. There are other group photographs and they are not easy to destinguish among them when they are not identified. There were not very many boarding schools, but they were some. Some are oprphanages. This would have been particularly common after World War I in the 1920s. We are less sure about the situation after World War II. As in Germany, I think that the school arranged summer and vacation group trips in which the children stayed together in facilities in various vacation spots. Youth groups may have also had camp and other facilities for children. While we do not understand some of the photographs, we think that they are useful to assess them to better understand Austria childhood experiences.

Created: 12:05 AM 5/6/2008
Last updated: 12:05 AM 5/6/2008