Work Camp   410 GW

Location: Werndorf

Type of work: Quarry & Cement Works

Man of Confidence: L/Cpl C.H. Bradley, 3866

Number of Men: 9+

Known to be present

The Search for the Quarry

In 2015, Phil Evans, the son of Arthur Evans, determined to locate the quarry where his father worked. He takes up the story:

After discovering my father’s two workcamps at Werndorf (410GW) and Liebenau (576/L) from his MI9 Questionnaire at the NA in the summer of 2015, I decided on the spur of the moment in November to fly to Vienna and drive south to Graz. Liebenau is a short distance south of Graz (now part of greater Graz) and Werndorf is also due south about half way between Graz and Leibnitz, just off Route 67. My father had left a few clues to his Liebenau workcamp by recording Hauptstrasse and 78 Gartengasse in Liebenau, and Fernitz, a small village further south,  in his MI9, but after two days in Graz there was no success in locating the workcamp. However, before leaving Graz and a visit to the Kleine Zeitung newspaper, the journalist who I met there, Andrea Rieger, agreed to publish an article appealing for information, which remarkably proved successful and on a following trip in 2017 was able to find the exact location of 576/L. Werndorf is a small rural village surrounded by flat farming fields and there was not a soul to be seen when driving in and the main street was completely deserted. After entering the backyard of a property by mistake, a couple and their daughter were having coffee. I explained why I was there and even though I had trespassed and surprised them, they could not have been more friendly or helpful and provided me with a map, marking the quarry for me on it. 410GW was a quarry and cement works. Although finding the cement works was very easy, it’s still going today, it was clear that the marked location for the quarry could not be correct, so I decided to explore the area. To the east of the cement works is a high hill and on the side of the hill was a bare exposure of white sandstone, so decided to drive towards it. A little way down the Retzerleiten Weg there was a closed entrance to some sort of earthworks and it was clear from walking into the site, it must be the quarry. It was still being used to store some equipment there. The site was also confirmed later on from the MI9 Questionnaire of Driver David MacCallum.

Photos provided by Phil Evans.