German war cemetery Costermano
The German war cemetery Costermano is a collective cemetery in Italy east of Lake Garda on a narrow mountain ridge south of Costermano sul Garda . Over 22,000 German soldiers and other war dead from World War II are buried here.
location
The cemetery is on Via Baesse 12 in Costermano, which turns south from the Strada provinciale SP8 from Garda to Costermano after the end of the serpentine route and a few hundred meters after entering the town. It lies above the town of Garda. The path leads through the open hall of the entrance building, a large gate and a wide staircase to a small terrace. From there you can overlook the cemetery.
history
From June 1940, Italy participated on the side of the German Reich in World War II. After the armistice of Cassibile with the Allies on September 8, 1943, the Badoglio government declared war on the former German ally on October 13, 1943, while the Hitler- dependent puppet government of the Italian Social Republic under Mussolini was set up in northern Italy . As a result, in the areas controlled by the fascists and the Germans, there were civil war-like conditions with the Resistance and German reprisals and war crimes against the civilian population. On May 2, 1945 , the German associations surrendered in Italy. Around 100,000 German soldiers died in Italy. In 1988 there was a scandal when the German Consul General Manfred Steinkühler refused to lay a wreath on the day of national mourning unless the bones of the three SS men Christian Wirth , Franz Reichleitner and Gottfried Schwarz were removed from the cemetery. He justified this with their involvement in Aktion Reinhardt , where the three aforementioned were responsible for the extermination of the Jews . As a compromise, the names of the three SS men who were killed were deleted from the cemetery 's "Book of Honor" and their ranks removed from the gravestones.
The dead
A ceramic map shows the 1,654 places in 37 provinces of northern Italy from which the dead were reburied. The individual graves were in community cemeteries, at the roadside and in the fighting positions.
The dead also include people who committed war crimes by murdering partisans and civilians in Italy and who participated in the murder of the Jewish population in occupied Poland and Italy. Texts in the entrance area of the cemetery indicate this.
Among other things, the graves of:
- SS-Obersturmführer Friedrich Schmidkonz, commander of the 3rd company of the reconnaissance department of the 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Reichsführer SS" , commanded by Walter Reder , and involved in the massacres of the Valla , Vinca and Marzabotto massacres .
- SS-Untersturmführer Helmut König, also part of the reconnaissance department of the 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Reichsführer SS" and involved in the Marzabotto massacre.
- SS officer Alfred Wagner participated in the massacre of Sant'Anna di Stazzema .
- SS-Standartenführer Christian Wirth from November 1940 to 1941 inspector for "euthanasia measures" and the special registry offices that issued forged death certificates. Inspector for the Belzek, Treblinka and Sobibor extermination camps.
As a consequence, the cemetery is dedicated to the victims of war and tyranny.
investment
The cemetery consists of three terraced burial fields. They are planted with purple heather. The graves are marked by stone slabs. A path leads through the tombs to the highest point of the hill. Here is an eight meter high steel cross created by the blacksmith Manfred Bergmeister from Ebersberg and a stone altar.
International understanding
The war cemetery was inaugurated on May 6, 1967. At the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the opening in 2017, the common international commemoration and the admonition of the dead to peace and reconciliation were emphasized. Relatives, young people from a youth meeting, a representative of the Italian Ministry of Defense , Alpini reservists, Carabinieri and the Army Music Corps of the German Armed Forces from Ulm were present .
See also
Web links
- Website of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (work of the Volksbund and description of the German war cemetery in Costermano)
- Costermano at denkfried.de
- German war cemetery Costermano supported by the VDK at www.kriegsopfer.org (photos)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Website of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (work of the Volksbund and description of the German war cemetery in Costermano)
- ↑ Website of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (work of the Volksbund and description of the German war cemetery in Costermano)
- ↑ Axel Hartmann: "Finally peace in Costermano" In: Peace needs courage: 100 years of the Volksbund. Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V., Kassel 2020, p. 131.
- ^ Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. (Ed.): German war cemeteries in Italy. Leaflet.
- ↑ Website of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (work of the Volksbund and description of the German war cemetery in Costermano)
- ↑ A "Mummy" reports: The Office and the Cemetery. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , November 6, 2010.
- ^ L'onore perduto di Costermano. In: marx21.it. Retrieved November 5, 2019 (Italian).
- ↑ Axel Hartmann: "Finally peace in Costermano" In: Peace needs courage: 100 years of the Volksbund. Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V., Kassel 2020, pp. 131–132.
- ↑ Website of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (work of the Volksbund and description of the German war cemetery in Costermano)
- ↑ Costermano military cemetery (further illustration at berliner-geschichtswerkstatt.de).
- ↑ Website of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (work of the Volksbund and description of the German war cemetery in Costermano)
- ↑ Diane Tempel-Bornett: Memory is not a distant echo. 50 years of the Costermano war cemetery. In: “frieden”, October 2017, pp. 16–19.
- ↑ Diane Tempel-Bornett: Memory is not a distant echo. 50 years of the Costermano war cemetery. In: “frieden”, October 2017, pp. 16–19.
Coordinates: 45 ° 34 ′ 56.8 " N , 10 ° 44 ′ 37.8" E