Eberstein, Austria

Coat of arms

Eberstein (Slovenian: Svinec) is a town in the district of Sankt Veit an der Glan in the Austrian state of Carinthia.

Geography

The municipality lies in the central Görtschitz valley at the foot of the Saualpe.

World War II

Peter Pearson tells a story about the region on the BBC Website "WW2 People's War". He says that Signal Platoon of HQ Company 5th Battalion Sherwood Foresters came from Italy into Eberstein, Austria in 1945, and that it was

Somewhere in the area between St Viet and Neumark we eventually came to a stop in an idyllic picturesque village called Eberstein. It was the sort of place you see on Austrian postcards with a clear sparkling river (complete with trout) and green meadows full of wild flowers, and cows with tinkling bells round their necks. There was a castle here known as Schloss Eberstein.

^[3]

He goes on to describe the surrender at Eberstein of 30,000 Cossack troops, with 20,000 horses, who had been fighting on the Axis side, many of whom he describes as Ukrainian. They were eventually turned over to the Red Army at Judenburg as part of the Repatriation of Cossacks after WWII.^[3]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eberstein (Kärnten).

1. ^ "Dauersiedlungsraum der Gemeinden Politischen Bezirke und Bundesländer - Gebietsstand 1.1.2018". Statistics Austria. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
2. ^ "Einwohnerzahl 1.1.2018 nach Gemeinden mit Status, Gebietsstand 1.1.2018". Statistics Austria. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
3. ^ ^{a b c} BBC. "BBC - WW2 People's War - Peter Pearson's War Story". BBC. Retrieved 2009-01-24.