Priimetsa prisoner of war camp

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Priimetsa prisoner of war camp was located near Priimetsa, a district of Valga ( German Walk ) in southern Estonia .

history

In the late summer of 1941, shortly after Germany's attack on the Soviet Union and the occupation of Estonia by the German Wehrmacht , a German camp for Soviet prisoners of war was set up in Priimetsa . Until January 1943, Stalag 351 (officially: "Team Tribe and Penal Camp 351") was housed there in former horse stables . It was one of a total of six main or transit camps in Estonia during World War II . Around 30,000 prisoners of war are said to be buried there. The monument Lein ("Mourning") created by Anton Starkopf , which depicts a grieving mother, is a reminder of her.

A Soviet prisoner-of-war camp was set up in Priimetsa on November 1, 1944, in which German, Austrian, Hungarian and a few soldiers of Spanish descent were interned . About 300 prisoners of war found their final resting place there. The last of the dead was buried in Priimetsa in November 1947. Since 1998 the site has been a military cemetery of the German War Graves Commission .

In the immediate vicinity is the Valga civil cemetery ( Priimetsa kalmistu ). Among other things, the inhabitants of Valga who died in the Estonian War of Independence (1918–1920) are buried on it.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. http://www.moosburg.org/info/stalag/laglist.html#ostland

Coordinates: 57 ° 47 '15 "  N , 26 ° 4' 12.8"  E