The impalement of heads of two trapped Austrian soldiers during the combat at Jaice, August 7th 1878
Vienna, Austria
Austrian Military Museum / Institute of Military History
About Austrian Military Museum / Institute of Military History, Vienna
1901 (Monogramed and dated: "AP u. TO 1901")
Albin Panian von Labor
HGM_MHI_6_Jaice
Oil on canvas
62 x 102 cm
This painting depicts a brutal war crime that occurred during the Austro-Hungarian Army's occupation campaign in 1878. On the reverse side of the painting there is a contemporary inscription, which sheds light on the situation: “During the battle at Jaice, Master Corporal Grilec and Private Matko, members of the 53rd Infantry Regiment have been trapped and beheaded. Their heads have been impaled in front of the gate to the river Pliva.” This treatment of prisoners of war was unfortunately not rare during the first weeks of the campaign; it provided a glimpse into a difference in approaches to warfare that would be borne out during the upcoming wars in the Balkans, 1912–13.
"The impalement of heads of two trapped Austrian soldiers during the combat at Jaice, August 7th 1878" in "Sharing History", Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://sharinghistory.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;AWE;at;52;en
MWNF Working Number: AT 053