Ehrenfriedhof on the north bank of the Maschsee

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The cemetery of honor, decorated with small doves of peace in early 2011

The cemetery of honor on the north bank of the Maschsee in Hanover is a listed cemetery in 1945 in honor of a total of 526 prisoners of war and inmates of concentration camps of various nationalities , including 154 citizens of the former Soviet Union , who were murdered on April 6, 1945 by members of the Gestapo headquarters in Hanover had been. While these end-of-war crimes by the Nazis were intended to cover up injustice and cruelty , a central inner-city location behind the New Town Hall was deliberately chosen to commemorate the construction of the cemetery of honor on Arthur-Menge-Ufer on the north bank of the Maschsee .

history

During the Second World War , which was caused by Germany, more than 500 camps were set up in the city of Hanover alone for more than 60,000 forced laborers who had to work primarily in armaments factories . In addition, there were seven different concentration camps in Hanover as satellite camps of the Neuengamme concentration camp for the labor deployment of several thousand prisoners (the total number of prisoners and the number of those who died there could no longer be determined). A few weeks before the end of the war, when the Western Allied troops moved ever closer to Hanover, around 4,500 concentration camp prisoners who were still able to walk were sent on one of the so-called “ death marches ” to Bergen-Belsen from April 6, 1945 . A little more than 1,000 sick concentration camp inmates - mainly from the two camps in Stöcken ( Continental and Akkumulatorenwerke ) - were loaded into freight cars and then shot by members of the SS in a barn near Gardelegen .

Also on April 6, 1945, numerous people, including 154 Soviet war and civil prisoners who had previously been detained in the Lahde “ labor camp ” and in the Ahlem police substitute prison, were driven from Ahlem on a death march through Hanover, during which some people were able to escape. The others had to dig their graves themselves in the Seelhorster cemetery , line up in rows of four and were then shot with a targeted head shot by members of the Gestapo control center in Hanover. A total of 526 forced laborers and concentration camp inmates were murdered in this way. Only prisoner Peter Palnikow was able to escape his murder and hurried burial in mass graves there .

Four days later, on April 10, 1945, after negotiations with the acting mayor Egon Bönner , the Allies marched into Hanover almost without a fight; Gauleiter Hartmann Lauterbacher had indeed previously by radio a few days staying - appeal read themselves but then towards " resin fortress brought" current "safe".

After Peter Palnikow had reported to the Allies about the murdered people in the Seelhorster cemetery, the British city commander GH Lamb ordered the construction of the cemetery of honor at the Maschsee in May 1945. On May 2nd, Lambs ordered high-ranking Hanoverian Nazis to exhume a total of 386 corpses as part of a re-education and - also on orders - to escort them in a funeral procession to the newly established cemetery in the presence of the Hanover population .

Few of those killed could be identified, their names were:

  • Nadja Podmogilnaya
  • Nicolai Belozenko
  • Ivan Burba
  • Michael Masuskewiz
  • Ivan Sauszuk
  • Vasily Sednev

In the same year, in 1945, a memorial stone was erected based on a design by the Soviet sculptor Nikolai Muchin-Koloda , made by R. Lauschke & Co. in Einbeck . The inscription was agreed between the staff for the repatriation of Soviet citizens from Hanover and the surrounding area and the city commanders and reads in German, Russian, English and French:

Memorial stone of Nikolai Muchin-Koloda with the wreath laid by Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russia's President Dmitri Medvedev in 2011
Flowers laid down, 2015

“In the eternal memory
of the members of the USSR
and other nations,
victims of Nazi brutality.
Cruelly murdered
in Hanover on April 8, 1945. "

On October 16, 1945 the cemetery of honor was inaugurated with a military ceremony . But despite the central location of the cemetery "of honor Graveyard forced out public awareness and forget" Russian cemetery was in the aftermath of the " defamed ." Since 1947, the monument was repeatedly vandalized, particularly the figure of the grieving young man's goal was the vandalism .

After the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1952, "probably a consequence of the Cold War ", the Soviet star that had formerly crowned the monument was removed. Since that year, and since 1965, although one exists due to the laws that protect the war graves of continuance for the entire memorial cemetery. However, as early as the 1950s, the individual graves and their identification were made unrecognizable in favor of easy-care bedding . Relatives of the murdered therefore hardly found out where their relatives, who were often thought to be missing, were buried.

In 1980 an information board was installed to the left of the cemetery entrance with the inscription:

“Here rest 154 Soviet soldiers who were murdered on April 8, 1945, two days before the American troops marched into Hanover, in the Seelhorster cemetery by members of the Secret State Police and buried in a mass grave. In addition, 232 other victims of National Socialism were buried here, who were in other mass graves in the Seelhorster cemetery. They are prisoners from concentration camps in Hanover and forced laborers from Belgium , France , Greece , Italy , Yugoslavia , the Netherlands , Poland and the Soviet Union . "

Since the 1980s, initiatives such as that of IG Metall or, later, Maschsee AG , have encouraged greater preoccupation with the history of the place. In 1993, when cross symbols were set up, the complex was only externally identified as a cemetery. Since the 2007/2008 school year, the Heinrich Heine School in Hanover has sponsored the cemetery of honor. But it was not until 2009 that rows of graves were symbolized again by new planting. In 2010 a memorial plaque was installed by the Volksbund Deutscher Kriegsgräberfürsorge , in cooperation with the Heinrich Heine School in Hanover and others.

Janet von Stillfried on May 8, 2012 with the memorial book that had begun
Stephan Weil , student of the "Gymnasium 192" from Saint Petersburg , the St. Ursula School in Hanover and the Bertha von Suttner School in Hanover with the memorial book

For the first time in 2011, “ young people dealt with a European commemoration of those buried there as part of an international youth exchange.” The St. Ursula School and the Bertha von Suttner School have also sponsored the cemetery of honor and sit down, for example through regular maintenance work for its maintenance.

A memorial stele in the Seelhorst city cemetery also commemorates the victims of the shootings.

In 2015, at the request of Rifle President Paul-Eric Stolle , the parade for the opening of the shooting festival was interrupted for the first time at the Ehrenfriedhof, the music stopped and the flags lowered in order to " commemorate the 526 prisoners of war and prisoners from concentration camps who are buried there."

Memorial book

On behalf of the city of Hanover, the historian Janet von Stillfried carried out intensive name research in order to document the individual names and fates of the victims buried in the cemetery of honor. Together with a bookbinder , an elaborately designed memorial book was created - a sacrifice, a page (to be updated) - which was handed over to the mayor of the city on May 8, 2012 and is intended to serve as a permanent reminder and further research. In particular, the relatives of those killed should be able to search for clues to their relatives with the help of the book.

Memorial events

  • Annually commemorative events take place in the Ehrenfriedhof;

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Ehrenfriedhof am Maschsee-Nordufer (Hanover)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Waldemar R. Röhrbein: Ehrenfriedhof on the north bank of the Maschsee, "Russenfriedhof" (see literature).
  2. ↑ Hans-Herbert-Möller (Ed.): Middle. In: Annex directory of architectural monuments according to § 4 (NDSchG) (excluding architectural monuments of the archaeological monument preservation), as of July 1, 1985. City of Hanover, Lower Saxony State Administration Office - Institute for Monument Preservation , p. 3, In: Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany , architectural monuments in Lower Saxony, City of Hanover. Part 1, [Vol.] 10.1, ISBN 3-528-06203-7 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Julia Berlit-Jackstien: Personalizing the culture of remembrance… (see literature).
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge: Hannover commemorative plaque (see literature).
  5. ^ A b Klaus Mlynek : Concentration Camp. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover. P. 364.
  6. ^ A b Klaus Mlynek: Second World War. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover. P. 694 f.
  7. ↑ Helmut Knocke , Hugo Thielen : Maschsee. In: Hannover Art and Culture Lexicon , p. 170f.
  8. ↑ a b see this photo of the wreath from July 19, 2011.
  9. ↑ Note: According to Waldemar R. Röhrbein, there was still some uncertainty about the actual date of the shooting when the memorial was created.
  10. ↑ a b Ulrike Dursthoff, Michael Pechel (Red.): Monument on the Maschsee / Arthur-Menge-Ufer, in: Places of Remembrance. Signpost to places of persecution and resistance during the Nazi regime in the Hanover region. ed. from the Remembrance and Future Network in the Hanover Region, c / o Förderverein Gedenkstätte Ahlem e. V., no year (2007?), Self-published by the state capital Hanover, p. 113 f.
  11. ↑ Erinnernundzukunft.de: Heinrich Heine Schule ( Memento of the original dated November 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.erinnernundzukunft.de
  12. ^ Internet site of the Bertha von Suttner School in Hanover .
  13. ^ Cemetery and memorial on the Maschsee on the website of the network "Remembrance and Future in the Hanover Region"
  14. ↑ Andreas Voigt: Start of the hot Schützenfest / Bruchmeister commitment and tapping beer at Marris. In: [[Neue Presse (Hanover) |]]. July 4, 2015, p. 19.
  15. ↑ Christian Holzgreve, Stefan Koch: German-Russian Meeting / Merkel receives Medvedev in Hanover , online on Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung from July 18, 2011, last accessed on March 29, 2012

Coordinates: 52 ° 21 '47.9 "  N , 9 ° 44' 14.3"  E