November 1918, Siberia

They came back half frozen and starving. If they came back at all. More than two million soldiers of the Habsburg Empire were taken prisoner in Russia during the First World War. German- and Hungarian-speakers were generally sent to camps in Siberia. From there, the journey home was particularly difficult. Many died in the turmoil of the Russian civil war. Overall, nearly half a million of the Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war lost their lives. And sometimes even years after the war had ended, returning soldiers would suddenly appear at the door of their families’ homes.