War cemetery bomb victims Würzburg main cemetery

The war cemetery bomb victims Würzburg main cemetery is located on the left in front of the main entrance to the main cemetery Würzburg , which is located at the ring park of the city of Würzburg in Germany. 3,000 of the 5,000 victims of the bombing raid on Würzburg on March 16, 1945 rest here .

War cemetery bomb victims of World War II in Würzburg. Mass grave at the entrance to the main cemetery: high crosses.

War cemetery bomb victims of World War II in Würzburg. Mass grave at the entrance to the main cemetery: stone crosses in the front part of the mass grave.

The happening

bombing

The Franconian city of Würzburg was one of the cities in the German Empire that were bombed in the last weeks of the Second World War . The heaviest attack on the evening of March 16, 1945 , carried out by the British Royal Air Force , killed around 5000 people; 90% of the historic old town was destroyed.

Rescue of the bomb victims

The bomb victims were stored on the front wall of the left aisle in the Würzburg Cathedral until they could be transferred to the collective grave. At this point in the cathedral, to the left after the entrance gate, there is now a prayer room in memory of the war victims.

Quotes from contemporary witnesses

“... All ages and genders are represented among the dead, from infants to old men. There are intact, bloody, crushed, dusty, black and scorched. Parts of the body are also included. ... "

- Contemporary witness of the Würzburg cathedral chaplain Fritz Bauer

“... Apparently the heat developed so terribly with smoke development that all the occupants of the air raid shelter, only women and children, eventually suffocated and scorched. ... "

- Contemporary witness Otto Stein

War cemetery bomb victims

War cemetery bomb victims of World War II in Würzburg. Mass grave at the entrance to the main cemetery: bell for remembrance and reconciliation in detail.

War cemetery bomb victims of World War II in Würzburg. Mass grave at the entrance to the main cemetery: Memorial by Fried Heuler of the parents with a child in rigor mortis.

To the left of the main entrance to the main cemetery in Würzburg is the mass grave for the approx. 3000 bomb victims who were recovered. The main cemetery itself was no longer usable due to the bombing (no cemetery attendants, torn open graves, overturned gravestones). On the edge of the memorial you can see a replica of a fragment of an explosive bomb that was processed for the Würzburg Reconciliation Bell. In the middle of the mass grave area, a memorial plate by the Würzburg sculptor Fried Heuler was set into the ground, symbolically showing a man, a woman and two children larger than life in a state of agony. The mass grave is lined with memorial stones to the fallen of the First and Second World War and an obelisk for the fallen of 1870/1871 .

Excursus: Documentation and memorial site

The extent of the destruction of the city center was documented in a permanent exhibition near the Alte Mainbrücke on the right at the entrance to Grafeneckart. The aim is to make the effects tangible for future generations beyond statistical figures.

Film documentaries

BR of March 15, 2010, 22: 30-23: 15: Würzburg, March 16, 1945, documentary. Production by Bayerischer Rundfunk 2005 (contemporary witnesses, types of bombs, flight paths, mass grave in front of the cemetery, typed listing of the fatalities, pictures of the ruined city, low-flying aircraft)

Web links

Commons : War cemetery bomb victims Würzburg main cemetery - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ See information board by the reconciliation bell.
↑ This is the new cathedral. Special supplement in: Main Post from December 12, 2012.
↑ Roland Flade: Hope that grew out of ruins. 1945 to 1948: Würzburg's most dramatic years. Mainpost, Würzburg 2008, ISBN 3-925232-60-5 (with many reports from contemporary witnesses), p. 76, contemporary witness Domkaplan Fritz Bauer: Thursday, March 22, 1945. Three or four layers of dead on top of each other.
↑ ^a ^b Roland Flade: Hope that grew out of ruins. 1945 to 1948: Würzburg's most dramatic years. Mainpost, Würzburg 2008, ISBN 3-925232-60-5 (with many contemporary witness reports), p. 78, contemporary witness Otto Stein: Saturday, March 24, 1945. Transport of the sister to the mass grave.

49.79693841 9.94556934Coordinates: 49 ° 47 ′ 49 ″ N , 9 ° 56 ′ 44 ″ E

[1] See information board by the reconciliation bell.

[2] This is the new cathedral. Special supplement in: Main Post from December 12, 2012.

[3] Roland Flade: Hope that grew out of ruins. 1945 to 1948: Würzburg's most dramatic years. Mainpost, Würzburg 2008, ISBN 3-925232-60-5 (with many reports from contemporary witnesses), p. 76, contemporary witness Domkaplan Fritz Bauer: Thursday, March 22, 1945. Three or four layers of dead on top of each other.

[rflade78-4] Roland Flade: Hope that grew out of ruins. 1945 to 1948: Würzburg's most dramatic years. Mainpost, Würzburg 2008, ISBN 3-925232-60-5 (with many contemporary witness reports), p. 78, contemporary witness Otto Stein: Saturday, March 24, 1945. Transport of the sister to the mass grave.