Hoey Family Genealogy

Metzenseifen Labor Camp List

The town of Metzenseifen occupied an unenviable position during and after World War II. Although the town was in Czechoslovakia, the inhabitants were considered Germans and Hitler took many of them to serve in the German Army. In February 1945, the Russians came into the village and took a number of the inhabitants to work in the labor camps of Russia.

The villagers that were taken were loaded into box cars and locked inside. The doors were not opened again until their arrival in Russia two weeks later. Those individuals with an asterisk after their names died during the long trip. In the list below you will also find the Zu-name. Because of the number of different families with the same surname, inhabitants of Metzenseifen were also known by these Zu-names, a kind of nickname.

Elizabeth Smith was kind enough to share some personal information with me when she recognized her mother's cousin, Anton Schmiedt, in the list below. According to a letter from Karol Flachbart (Anton's son-in-law) to Elizabeth Smith:

"After World War II, as Metzenseifen was considered a German settlement, many people from this town were taken to labor camps in the former Soviet Union. My father-in-law was 18 at this time and never involved in actions of the war, but he was also dragged away. He worked there for two years in a coal mine and after this time he was able to escape. On the way home (1947) he was caught, but he was lucky that the commander of the troop was in Czechoslovakia during the war, and so after being able to answer also a few questions about this country he allowed him to continue his way home. Many others from Medzev returned home after five years. Some never returned...."

Today, Anton Schmiedt is alive and well, and still has enough energy to go hunting and bring home a deer now and then.

Die im Februar 1945 nach Rußland Verschleppten aus Ober-Metzenseifen

Citizens of Ober-Metzenseifen taken to Russia in February 1945

Die im Februar 1945 nach Rußland Verschleppten aus Unter-Metzenseifen

Citizens of Unter-Metzenseifen taken to Russia in February 1945

Sources:

Original Source of List:
Josef Kauer, Johannes Schürger, Klement Wagner, Unter- und Obermetzenseifen Stoß Unterzips- Ostslowakei, Edited by Hilfsbund Karpatendeutscher Katholiken e.V., Stuttgart 1986, page 9-11

List obtained from:
Mary Anne Quallich Barnett, Quallich Family Reunion Pamphlet - June 4, 1989, (Burnsville, MN, 1989)

Information on Anton Schmiedt:
Karol Flachbart, Letter to Elizabeth Smith