German war cemetery Rossoschka

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graveyard
Country: Russia
Region: Volgograd
Place: Rossoshka
Inauguration: May 15, 1999

The German war cemetery Rossoshka is located 37 kilometers northwest of the city center of Volgograd on the Rossoshka River. It is a place of rest and remembrance for those who fell in the Battle of Stalingrad , those who can no longer be rescued, and the missing German soldiers. It is a collective cemetery for the fallen in the area from Volgograd to Rostov-on-Don and between the Volga and Don . The Soviet war cemetery Rossoshka was laid out on the other side of the road.

Rossoshka west of Volgograd
Plan of the German and Soviet war cemetery Rossoschka with the former village of Rossoschka

German and Soviet war dead in Stalingrad

The German and Soviet war dead in the Volgograd area resulted from the following situation. German troops and their allies penetrated into the suburbs of Stalingrad and close to the Volga by mid-November 1942. The Soviet army surrounded the city of Stalingrad in Operation Uranus from November 19, 1942, and surrounded the German troops near Kalatsch am Don on November 22, 1942. With the withdrawal of the German troops, the cauldron became smaller and smaller. The south basin surrendered on January 31, 1943, and the north basin on February 2, 1943. The war dead from the fighting in Stalingrad are estimated at 169,000 people on the German side. The soldiers froze to death, starved to death, and died from disease and fighting. About a million civilians and soldiers lost their lives on the Soviet side.

German war cemetery Rossoschka

Rossoshka

The cemetery area is 6 hectares. A paved path first leads past the old Wehrmacht cemetery to the central memorial area with a high metal cross and then to the new collective cemetery for German fallen soldiers.

Old Wehrmacht cemetery in Gumrak

Old Wehrmacht cemetery in Gumrak

The old Wehrmacht cemetery is located near the former Gumrak airfield and next to the old, completely destroyed village of Rossoschka (for around 600 dead). It is designed as a trapezoidal area and surrounded by a natural stone wall.

New cemetery for German dead

German war cemetery Rossoschka. New cemetery.

The new cemetery is located on a loop of the Rossoshka River. The cemetery is circular and 150 meters in diameter. 61,700 German casualties (as of the end of 2018) from the Stalingrad area rest here. The cemetery was inaugurated on May 15, 1999. The cemetery is surrounded by a wall on which granite tablets are engraved with the names of the 24,427 who were recovered and identified. A paved path leads around the cemetery.

In memory of the soldiers who can no longer be rescued

Memorial stones in the steppe

17 granite cubes, on which the names of the fallen soldiers are listed in alphabetical order, commemorate the 14,563 German soldiers from the Volgograd urban area, who can no longer be rescued.

Remembering the missing

In addition to the circular cemetery, 126 large granite cubes with 119,505 names have been remembering the German missing since 2006. Each cube bears 900 names of missing German soldiers.

Overall name book Volgograd - Rossoshka

In the vicinity of the memorial site, about one kilometer from the village of Rossoschka, there has been a visitor pavilion / exhibition room since 2009, in which the 173,055 (as of 2006) fallen and missing Stalingrad victims are documented in the Volgograd - Rossoschka name book of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge . In the freely accessible online database of the Volksbund of Fallen or Missing German Soldiers of the First and Second World Wars , the grave location for the dead Stalingrad victims and the corresponding granite cube for the missing or no longer to be recovered is named.

Memorial stone to Rossoschka

A memorial stone commemorates the 22 missing and fallen residents of the completely destroyed villages Groß- und Klein-Rossoschka.

Russian war cemetery Rossoshka

Russian war cemetery Rossoshka
Russian war cemetery Rossoshka

In 1997, a semicircular cemetery for 20,000 Soviet dead (as of 2019) was created opposite the German war cemetery, only separated by a narrow country road, with the support of the German War Graves Commission.

Almost 20,000 Soviet soldiers are buried on the Russian war cemetery (as of 2016). Hundreds of dead rest in the tombs, which are marked with green helmets on granite stones. Thousands of dead rest in a mass grave.

The Mother Home Statue (Volgograd) on the hard-fought Mamayev Hill is the central Russian memorial for the Battle of Stalingrad and the Soviet war dead in Volgograd.

Friedenskapelle as a connection between the two war cemeteries

Location of the future Peace Chapel

The Rossoschka Peace Chapel by the Kassel architect von Reuss connects the middle of the German and Russian war cemeteries. The foundation stone was laid in 2013 and the inauguration took place on September 7, 2016. One of the sandstone walls of the open-topped chapel with a West Christian symbol points to the German cemetery, a second with an East Christian Orthodox symbol points to the Soviet cemetery. Veterans, diplomats and clergymen from Russia and Germany and a class from the partner school in Deggendorf took part in the ceremony.

Reconciliation over the graves

The common cemetery is intended to strengthen reconciliation between the peoples. In the spirit of understanding and friendship, German and Russian young people work in so-called work camps on the care of the gravestones, granite cubes and paths and dig new grave sites for the reburial of German and Soviet soldiers. The dialogue between German and Russian veterans promoted mutual understanding. Tour groups with relatives regularly visit the Rossoshka war cemetery.

See also

film records

literature

  • Rainer Ruff (Ed.): Names for Rossoschka. Fates from Stalingrad. Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. Pößneck 2007. (Compilation of diary excerpts, field post letters, descriptions by surviving contemporary witnesses, reports from family members on the occasion of the inauguration of the name dice for the missing).

Web links

Commons : German war cemetery Rossoschka  - collection of images
Commons : Soviet war cemetery Rossoshka  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rossoschka war cemetery on the website of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V., accessed December 5, 2012.
  2. ↑ The beginning of the end. In: "Südkurier", January 27, 2018, p. 15.
  3. ↑ http://www.faehreensucher.com/stalingrad-1942-1943/chronologie-der-schlacht ( Memento from April 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Rossoschka war cemetery on the website of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V., accessed December 5, 2012.
  5. ↑ Rossoschka war cemetery on the website of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V., accessed December 5, 2012.
  6. ↑ Alexander Michel: 70 years ago: The mass extinction around Stalingrad. In: Südkurier of November 17, 2012, accessed on December 5, 2012
  7. ↑ Maurice Bonkat, Fritz Kirchner and Christoph Blase: Gebot der Menschlichkeit. 70th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad. In: frieden 1/2013, pp. 16-17.
  8. ↑ Rossoschka war cemetery on the website of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V., accessed December 5, 2012.
  9. ^ Volksbund online search for graves
  10. ↑ Rossoschka war cemetery on the website of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V., accessed December 5, 2012.
  11. ↑ Last resting place in the steppe. Spiegel online 2003.
  12. ↑ (en) Stalingrad. Respect for the fall. Accessed December 5, 2012
  13. ↑ Harald John: I am sad and happy at the same time. 83-year-old son receives certainty. In: Frieden 02/2019, pp. 26-27.
  14. ↑ Yuri Rescheto: German-Russian reconciliation in Rossoshka. In: Deutsche Welle of September 7, 2016.
  15. ↑ Foundation stone laid for the Rossoschka Peace Chapel. In peace. Journal of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge, October 2013, p. 44.
  16. ↑ Representations of the Federal Republic of Germany in the Russian Federation: Ceremonial inauguration of the Peace Chapel in Rossoschka , September 7, 2016. ( Memento from September 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  17. ↑ Yuri Rescheto: German-Russian reconciliation in Rossoshka. In: Deutsche Welle of September 7, 2016.
  18. ^ The chapel in Rossoschka was consecrated. In: Frieden 2/2016, p. 44.
  19. ↑ Horst Zank: Memories of the great battle. In: The Ostpreußenblatt of July 3, 1999.
  20. ↑ Travel to the Rossoschka war cemetery on the website of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V., accessed April 16, 2013.

Coordinates: 48 ° 49 ′ 30 ″  N , 44 ° 9 ′ 47 ″  E