Military cemeteries in Freistadt
The Upper Austrian city of Freistadt has two military cemeteries from the First and Second World Wars and the occupation . On the one hand the Jaunitzbachtal cemetery in the south of the city and on the other hand the Soviet Russian cemetery in the north.
Jaunitzbachtal
The Jaunitzbachtal military cemetery is located in the southern municipality on the Jaunitz ( Lage ). It was opened with the first burial on March 23, 1916, as the 59 individual graves planned at the cemetery in Sankt Peter were occupied. The cemetery was established on the basis of the Austro-Hungarian POW camp Freistadt between 1914 and 1918, in which around 20,000 prisoners from Russia and Italy were imprisoned. By the end of the war, the cemetery comprised 462 individual graves, 388 of which were used. 367 Russians and 21 Italians were buried here.
During the Second World War, the cemetery was expanded to include the new section to around 7200 square meters. The new part is a collective cemetery for 2,352 dead from 14 nations, including 787 German soldiers. The inauguration took place on September 9, 1972 after the dead had been transferred here from several cemeteries in the area since the late 1960s.
The two parts are connected by a wooden bridge. The entrance building is on the new part, the tombstones of the new part are made of Lasberger granite.
The war grave welfare department of the Austrian Black Cross is responsible for maintaining the cemetery .
Soviet Russian cemetery
In the north of the city ( Lage ) there is a small, square cemetery with deceased Soviet soldiers from the occupation period 1945 to 1955. The cemetery contains 68 graves, 20 of which are without names or death dates.
In the center is an obelisk with an inscription. The obelisk is surrounded by stone pillars with iron chains. The inscription on the tombstones is in Cyrillic .
gallery
Plaque at the Jaunitztal military cemetery
Obelisk at the Soviet Russian Cemetery
See also
literature
- Fritz Fellner: The city within the city. The prisoner of war camp in Freistadt 1914–1918. In: Upper Austrian homeland sheets . Volume 43, Issue 1, Linz 1989, p. 11, entire article p. 3–32, online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at.
