2 Kronen Katzenau bei Linz; PoW Camp

Katzenau was one of Austria-Hungary's most notoriously harsh internment camps, holding Serbian and Montenegrin civilians — not military prisoners — deported from occupied territories on suspicion of political unreliability. The distinction mattered: civilian internees had no legal framework protecting them, and conditions at the camp drew criticism even from within the Habsburg administration.

Camp scrip of this type circulated exclusively within the wire, redeemable at the camp canteen and worthless outside it. The issuing authority was the camp commandant's office, not any banking institution — which is why denominations and printing quality varied so freely across the series. These notes were instruments of controlled deprivation as much as anything else.