Memorial sites in the Heidmark
In the Heidmark ( Lohheide and Osterheide ) there are a number of memorial sites that are associated with the existence of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp , the activities of the Wehrmacht , the planned "exchange camp " , acts of war at the end of the war and the liberation of the concentration camp by British troops Related.
Historical and geographical connections
The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp emerged from a prisoner-of-war camp. Originally it was supposed to accommodate prisoners who were available for exchange with other countries. The Bergen military training area has been in the immediate vicinity since 1935 . According to estimates by the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge, there are 50,000 dead in 14 mass graves at the “Russenfriedhof” . Not far away, on the Lohheide war cemetery, are the graves of German soldiers who died in the last days of the Second World War in Lohheide. The seven stone houses testify to the settlement in prehistoric times .
Cultural monuments and sights
In the Lohheide area
Historic camp site of the former Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and documentation center for the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
The Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp Documentation Center is located on the road between Bergen , Belsen and Winsen / Aller , where the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp existed.
At the site of the former Bergen-Belsen concentration camp there was the first memorial site on the site of a former concentration camp as early as 1952, consisting of a Jewish memorial and an inscription plaque with an obelisk, and from 1966 also an exhibition hall. As a place of remembrance, Bergen-Belsen was hardly maintained for decades. In 2007, the state of Lower Saxony opened a new building in cooperation with the federal government. The work of the memorial is also carried out on a voluntary basis by members of the Bergen-Belsen e. V. supports.
Lower Saxony youth associations have been working on the site of the memorial and the Soviet war cemetery since 1993 .
Wehrmacht prisoner-of-war camp from 1939 to 1945
The construction of the camp goes back to September 1939. The situation of Soviet, Italian and Polish prisoners in particular is presented in the documentation center. The Soviet prisoner-of-war cemetery in Hörsten with 14 mass graves can be reached from the Bergen-Belsen Memorial via a footpath or from the Ostenholz – Belsen road.
Displaced Persons Camp Bergen-Belsen 1945 to 1950
On the upper floor of the documentation center there are exhibitions on the emergency hospital in 1945 and on the Polish DP camp from 1945 to 1946 and on the Jewish DP camp from 1945 to 1950.
Other documentation
The following exhibitions are also located in the documentation center
- Topography of the former camp area: The history of the site from 1938 to April 1945 is shown in six chronological maps.
- Prosecuting the perpetrators, preliminary investigations, trials ( Bergen-Belsen trial ), judgments.
- Archaeological finds: Objects found on the site of the former camp during excavation work are shown in 20 showcases.
- Video interviews with contemporary witnesses: The 340 interviews with survivors and contemporary witnesses have a total length of around 1,300 hours (as of July 2007).
Loading ramp
Aside from the new documentation center, it becomes clear on the loading ramp which way the prisoners had to cover in the camp. On the road (L 298) from Bergen to Belsen , about halfway there, a road bridge leads over the railway line that runs from Celle via Bergen to Belsen. Immediately behind this bridge on the left, in the parking lot, is a memorial. This was created by the Hanoverian artist couple Almut and Hans-Jürgen Breuste and inaugurated here on January 26, 2008. It is intended to commemorate the nearby railway ramp on which the prisoners of war and concentration camp inmates arrived. They were transported here by the Reichsbahn and had to walk 5 to 6 km to the camp from here. From the parking lot, a narrow inconspicuous (but signposted) approx. 550 m long footpath leads along the railway line to the loading ramp. The AG Bergen-Belsen has set up a "boxcar" there. At their request, part of the ramp and track was placed under monument protection in 2000.
DP camp Belsen
Displaced Persons (DP) were civilians who were initially without a known place of residence due to the turmoil of the Second World War and who were looked after by the Allied troops. The Belsen DP camp comprised two British DP camps for displaced persons on the Wehrmacht area to the east of the former Bergen-Belsen concentration camp . The concentration camp was burned down shortly after the liberation by the Allies for hygienic reasons in order to prevent the possible spread of epidemics.
The camp with the two camps was set up in a former Wehrmacht tank barracks .
Tent theater cemetery
“After the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, the British army evacuated around 29,000 survivors to the nearby barracks complex within four weeks and set up emergency hospitals in various buildings with the help of civil aid organizations. Thousands of people died there as a result of their imprisonment in the concentration camp. A separate cemetery was created for them on the edge of the barracks complex. There was a large tent for theatrical performances nearby, which is why it was called the "tent theater cemetery". By the end of 1945, around 4,500 Jewish and non-Jewish dead of many nationalities were buried there. The deceased residents of the Jewish DP camp were also buried in this cemetery until 1950. "
The tent theater cemetery (see map) is on the site of the British barracks, so it is not open to the public. The cemetery can only be visited after consulting the British authorities.
"Kapofriedhof"
In a smaller cemetery not far from the tent theater cemetery - opposite the barracks, in which concentration camp prisoners from other concentration camps (e.g. Mittelbau-Dora ) were initially housed and then DPs - people who died in the barracks across the street are buried . These are kapos who had come from Mittelbau-Dora to prisoner camp II of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and were involved in tensions among themselves. After the DP camp was set up in the same barracks, the dead from this camp were initially buried here. It is not known where the Hebrew inscriptions on three tombstones come from.
- The Great Cemetery is also a tent theater cemetery
Central monument in the cemetery
Overview of the cemetery
German inscription on the central monument
Rows of graves
Russian Orthodox grave
Symbolic single grave (The bottom line says "She rests in this cemetery".)
Many graves have a reference to the "unknown dead" - even more grave sites have no stone.
Gravestone for Felicja Stendigowa (within 200 other dead)
.JPG)
German war grave cemetery Lohheide
The German war grave cemetery is located in the barracks area, but is accessible and signposted.
- German war grave cemetery Lohheide
German war cemetery near Bergen-Hohne camp
Graves in the German War Graves Cemetery
Grave site at the German War Graves Cemetery
Bredebeck Castle
The Brede Schloss Beck on Lieth Bach is part of the Bergen-Hohne. Since 1945 it has been the officers' mess for the commandant's office of the British Army . Occasionally the British use it as a guest house. As such, it has also served as accommodation for the British royal family .
Memorial for Werner von Fritsch
A memorial of honor for Colonel General Werner Freiherr von Fritsch is located in the former Hoppenstedt ( Lohheide ). Another memorial stone is placed in the former Achterberg .
In the Osterheide area
Oerbke (in the west)
- Cemetery of the Nameless , a war grave site in which around 30,000 Soviet prisoners of war from World War II were buried in mass graves.
- In November 2012, the Lieth School in Bad Fallingbostel organized a “Path of Remembrance” from the ramp of the freight yard in Bad Fallingbostel to the former Stalag.
Ostenholz (in the southwest)
- Half-timbered church with a wooden tower from 1724
- Hoher Stein , a memorial stone for the evacuation of the communities in 1936 for the purpose of creating a Nazi military training area
- Seven stone houses , large stone graves from the Neolithic Age in the south of the military training area
Wense (in the northwest)
- Gutskapelle, magnificent church from 1558
Essel
- At the Allerübergang between Essel and Hademstorf , soldiers who died in the battle for the Allerbrücke in April 1945 are buried in a war grave cemetery.
Site plans
Map of the former villages before the Bergen military training area was built
Location of the documentation center
Concentration camp memorial and Soviet prisoner of war cemetery
Loading ramp and memorial
Location of the DP camp, tent theater and Kapo cemetery (in the barracks area only accessible by appointment) and war graves cemetery
literature
- Hinrich Baumann: The Heidmark - Change of Landscape: The History of the Bergen Military Training Area . Oerbke 2005, ISBN 3-00-017185-1 .
- Rolf Keller: Soviet prisoners of war in the German Reich 1941/42. Treatment and employment between the policy of extermination and the requirements of the war economy . Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8353-0989-0 . Reviews: H-Soz-u-Kult February 9, 2012, kulturthemen.de February 9, 2012
- Bergen-Belsen history of the memorial . Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation / Bergen-Belsen Memorial, Celle 2012
- Hans Stuhlmacher : The Heidmark . CV Engelhard, Hanover 1939, Schneeheide
- Hans Stuhlmacher: The Fallingbostel district . 1935, Schneeheide, publisher: Fritz Drescher, Möser near Magdeburg, printing: J. Gronemanns Buch- und Künsterei, Verlag der Walsroder Zeitung, Walsrode
- Wilfried Wiedemann: "Earth Conceal Not The Blood Shed On Thee". The new documentation center at the Bergen-Belsen Memorial. In: Bergen-Belsen: POW camp 1940–1945, concentration camp 1943–1945, Displaced Persons Camp 1945–1950. Catalog of the permanent exhibition. Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation, Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-8353-0612-7 .
- Wilfried Wiedemann, Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn (eds.): Landscape and memory: Bergen-Belsen, Esterwegen, Falstad, Majdanek , Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-89975-268-7 , pp. 103-124.
Web links
- Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in the LeMO ( DHM and HdG )
- Link catalog on the subject of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at curlie.org (formerly DMOZ )
Individual evidence
- ^ A contemporary witness reports on the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on April 15, 1945
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↑ Stalag XI C on www.relektiven.com and
Zum Stalag 311 / XI C in Bergen-Belsen (ak-regionalgeschichte.de; also a floor plan from Stalag XI B Fallingbostel) ( Memento of the original from April 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - ↑ April 1943: ( Memento of the original from January 18, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. “The Wehrmacht ceded the southern part of the camp grounds to the SS, who set up an 'exchange camp' there. Jewish prisoners are said to be held hostage here so that they can be exchanged for Germans interned abroad. The exchange camp is part of the National Socialist concentration camp system. ”(Website of the Bergen-Belsen memorial)
- ↑ “Residence camp” for exchange prisoners
- ↑ Military training area, set up by the Wehrmacht, today a NATO training area
- ↑ "Russenfriedhof" Bergen / Hörsten
- ↑ List of German fallen soldiers buried on the Lohheide war cemetery
- ↑ Cultural monument "Seven Stone Houses"
- ↑ Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation / Bergen-Belsen Memorial: Bergen-Belsen History of the Memorial , Celle 2012
- ^ Annette Langhorst: History in progress - the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp memorial opens its new documentation center. In: Jüdische Allgemeine from November 1, 2007.
- ↑ Overview of youth work in Bergen-Belsen
- ↑ The critical report by Stefan Drößler, which was linked here, is no longer available on the Internet. [{{Web archive | text = archive link | url = http: //merle-text.de/index.php? Option = com_content & task = view & id = 42 & Itemid = 26 | wayback = 20090327151226 | archiv-bot = 2018-04-11 16: 46:41 InternetArchiveBot}} Report by the freelance journalist Stefan Drößler about the memorial to the loading ramp]
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↑ Covered freight car as a souvenir:
“Not far from the Bergen-Belsen memorial (Celle district), an initiative of the» Arbeitsgemeinschaft Bergen-Belsen e. V. «next to the ramp on the edge of today's military training area, an old-style boxcar that had last come from the museum railway in Weyhe-Leeste (Lower Saxony) was set up. Its iron skeleton was provided with new boards by soldiers of the Bundeswehr in Bergen-Hohne. The year before, during construction work at the Bergen train station, the military mistakenly tore down part of the loading ramp, which has been listed as a historical monument since September 2000, and had to be restored. "
- Alfred Gottwaldt : The German “cattle wagon” as a symbolic object in concentration camp memorials. In: Memorial Forum. Topography of Terror Foundation, accessed October 10, 2012 . - ^ "Displaced Persons" on the website of the Bergen-Belsen Memorial. ( Memento of the original from August 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Displaced Persons on the website of the Bergen-Belsen Foundation ( memento of the original from August 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ bergen-belsen.stiftung-ng.de ( Memento of the original from January 13, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Information from the deputy head of the Bergen-Belsen Memorial, Thomas Rahe , on the Open Monument Day on September 8, 2013 during a guided tour of the sites of the DP Camp Belsen.
- ↑ List of graves at the German war grave cemetery Lohheide
- ↑ Hoppenstedt is north of Belsen, see map .
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↑ The memorial stone in Hoppenstedt has the inscription: Generaloberst Freiherr von Fritsch, born on August 4th, 1880, died on September 22nd, 1939, Commander in Chief of the Army from February 1st, 1934 to February 4th, 1938. Example for the German officer corps from January 27, 1900 to September 22, 1939. Die before the German army by his heroic death near Warsaw.
Another memorial stone has been erected in the former Achterberg by the staff of the Achterberg estate behind the manor house. The memorial stone there says: Here in Achterberg, Colonel General Freiherr v. Fritsch born on August 4th, 1880 died on September 22nd, 1939
"He liked Achterberg and its surroundings so much that from 1935 to 1938 he regularly spent four weeks there with his adjutant and his horses in spring and autumn." Source: Hinrich Baumann, (see literature), pp. 232–235. - ↑ Oerbke war cemetery - "Cemetery of the Nameless"
- ^ Report on the Path of Remembrance on the Lieth School Bad Fallingsbostel website
- ↑ Inscription of the "Hohen Stein": The memory of the Heidjer willing to make sacrifices from the former villages of Hörsten, Hoppenstedt, Hohne, Hasselhorst, Hohnerode, Manhorn, Lohe, Gudehausen, Ostenholz, Ettenbostel, Oberhode, Benhorn, Hartem, Fahrenholz, Böstlingen, Pröbsten, Kolk , Sudbostel, Nordbostel, Örbke, Obereinzingen, Untereinzingen, Achterberg, Wense ("Oerbke" is written with "Ö" on the stone.)
- ↑ The website for the Essel War Cemetery lists 114 war dead.
