Wetterfeld concentration camp cemetery (Roding)
The former concentration camp cemetery in Wetterfeld was one of the largest concentration camp cemeteries in Bavaria before it was closed . It was located on what was then the southern outskirts of Wetterfeld near Roding . 597 victims of death marches in the course of the evacuation of the Flossenbürg concentration camp were buried there. The burial site covered almost 3000 square meters. In 1957 the bodies were exhumed. The mortal remains of people of French, Dutch and Belgian nationality were returned to their respective home countries, the remaining skeletons were coffed and reburied in the Flossenbürg cemetery of honor.
background
During the evacuation of the Fössenbürg concentration camp, a large column of prisoners arrived in Wetterfeld on April 22, 1945 and stayed overnight. In the morning of the following day, around 50 people from this group who were unable to march were herded into a nearby forest ( the Gemeindehölzl ). There they were shot or beaten to death by the SS escort and buried in a sand pit. American troops reached the area on the same day and liberated around 3,000 to 4,000 survivors.
A week later, on May 1, 1945, by order of the US military, the dead were exhumed from the Gemeindehölzl and brought back to Wetterfeld, where they were laid out on the village square and soon afterwards on the southern outskirts of the village on Bundesstraße 85, on the then so-called Busl - Buried field .
Between the summer of 1945 and the spring of 1946, around 550 other prisoners, murdered and buried in the entire Roding district, were exhumed, brought to Wetterfeld and also buried on the Busl field . This had previously been confiscated by the American army command and designated as a cemetery.
Pictures from Wetterfeld
At the site of the former concentration camp cemetery there is now an underpass of the federal highway 85. A memorial has been erected about 500 meters south on a hill.
memorial
left plaque
middle plaque
right plaque
Place of the cemetery
todays situation
Individual proof
- ^ The nameless dead of Wetterfeld - accessed on April 17, 2018
Coordinates: 49 ° 13 ′ 13.2 ″ N , 12 ° 32 ′ 31.4 ″ E