Neustadt wood
The New Town Wood is a 730 ha large forest area between the district of Celle, Neustadt / Heese and Hambuhren in Lower Saxony .
It belongs to the Celler Stadtforst and the Lower Saxony State Forests (Staatsforst Wienhausen ). In the 19th century this forest area was a popular destination for excursions. The eastern part, within the urban area of Celle, was built on by an internal relief road (western bypass). In the east-west direction, the forest is crossed by the federal highway 214 . In the north, the Aller forms the border.
Logging and overgrazing had robbed the protective vegetation of the sand washed up in the Allerurstromtal. The wind formed shifting dunes that threatened agricultural areas and the city of Celle. In the 16th and 17th centuries , efforts were made to stop the drifting sand by planting, but this failed. Wicker fences and raised walls didn't help either. Only the planting of undemanding pines brought the desired success in the 19th century . Around 1900 the Neustädter Holz was a military shooting range , the sand dunes served as a bullet trap .
At the end of the Second World War , on April 8, 1945, there was an Allied bombing raid on Celle, in which the station facilities were the target. Several waiting trains, in which there were also around 4,000 concentration camp prisoners , were badly hit and hundreds of people were killed. Some of the concentration camp inmates managed to escape to nearby Neustädter Holz, but SS guards and citizens of Celle shot most of the refugees in the following two days. The exact number of victims could never be determined. Under the sarcastic name “Celler Hasenjagd” , this event represents the darkest chapter in the history of Celle.
literature
- Mijndert Bertram: April 1945. The air raid on Celle and the fate of the concentration camp prisoners from Drütte . Volume 18 from the series Celler Contributions to State and Cultural History. Celle 1989. ISBN 3-925902-09-0
- Mijndert Bertram, Kathrin Panne, Rainer Voss and others: Celle '45 - Aspects of a turning point . Publication accompanying the exhibition in the Bomann Museum in Celle. Celle 1995. ISBN 978-3-925902-21-5
- Mijndert Bertram: April 8, 1945. Celle - an air raid, a mass murder and the memory of it. In: Detlef Garbe, Carmen Lange: Inmates between extermination and liberation: The dissolution of the Neuengamme concentration camp and its satellite camps by the SS in spring 1945. Bremen 2005, ISBN 3-86108-799-5 , pp. 127–144
- Eva Lietzmann, Linda Meier, Helga Rechenberg, Heidi Timme, Daniel Strotmann: Stories and events around the Celler Neustadt - district chronicle from 1566-2005 . City of Celle, Celle 2006. ISBN 978-3-00-019698-0
- Reinhard Rohde, Tim Wegener: Celle in National Socialism. A topographical overview . Celle 2007
- Sebastian Stiekel: Aryanization and reparation in Celle . Publishing house for regional history, Bielefeld 2008. ISBN 978-3-89534-762-7
- Bernhard Strebel: Celle April 1945 revisited. An American bomb attack, German massacre of concentration camp prisoners and a British court case . Bielefeld 2008. ISBN 978-3-89534-768-9
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 38 ' N , 10 ° 1' E