Soviet war cemetery Bergen-Lohheide (Hörsten)
The victims of the former Bergen-Belsen prisoner-of-war camp, about 600 meters away, are buried on the Soviet war cemetery in Bergen-Lohheide (Hörsten) ( also known as the Hörsten prisoner of war cemetery).
Hörsten prisoner of war cemetery
In the period from 1941 to 1945, at least 19,580 Soviet prisoners of war were buried here , initially in individual graves and from October 1941 in mass graves that either froze to death or died of hunger, typhus, dysentery, typhus and tuberculosis in the Bergen-Belsen camp. 13,500 Soviet prisoners of war died in the winter of 1941/42 when there could be mass deaths due to completely inadequate nutrition and poor hygienic conditions. In addition, 142 Italian military internees and nine Polish prisoners of war were buried in individual graves in the cemetery. The only individual grave with a name is the grave of the Polish prisoner of war Elzbieta Glazowska. The graves of the Italian military internees were dismantled in 1958. Most of the dead were reburied in the Italian war cemetery in Hamburg-Öjendorf .
Camp for Soviet prisoners of war
On June 22, 1941, the German-Soviet war began with the German invasion of the Soviet Union . Three camps for prisoners of war, so-called " Russian camps ", were set up in the Lüneburg Heath . The prisoner-of-war team main camp Stalag XI D (321) in Oerbke near Bad Fallingbostel , the Stalag XD 310 near Wietzendorf and the Stalag XI C (311) Bergen-Belsen. The first soldiers of the Red Army were brought in here as early as July 1941 . Since there were hardly any accommodation barracks, the prisoners had to stay in caves in the earth, leaf huts or makeshift tents. Since August 1941 the Ruhr raged in Bergen-Belsen. In November 1941 the camp was closed due to the outbreak of typhus. The entire military training area was quarantined . Thereafter, the sick and incapable of working were brought to the Wietzendorf camp. An isolation ward was set up in the hospital area. In April 1943 the Wehrmacht ceded the southern part of the camp grounds to the SS , which set up the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp there. From June 1943 to January 1945 the hospital was assigned as a branch camp to Stalag XI B in Fallingbostel . On January 15, 1945 the "Bergen-Belsen branch camp" was completely closed. The prisoners were transferred to Stalag XI B.
Remembrance project
Index cards of the deceased were found in an archive near Moscow. As part of the commemorative project "We write your names" , carried out by the AG Bergen-Belsen and the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge eV , pupils from different schools from all over Lower Saxony - z. Sometimes together with guests from their Russian partner schools - clay tiles with the names of Soviet prisoners of war buried in Hörsten. The panels are mounted on the wall of the war cemetery and document the names, dates of birth and death of the dead in this cemetery.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ → Different information on the number of deaths: Information from the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge on the "Russenfriedhof" in Bergen / Hörsten 19,500 buried prisoners of war . The AG Bergen-Belsen names at least 19,580. According to documents from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, 19,500 Red Army soldiers are buried in the prisoner of war cemetery. The information board of the Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation at the entrance to the cemetery names an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 dead. The Soviet memorial erected in 1946 names 50,000 dead.
- ↑ Soviet war cemetery Bergen-Lohheide (Hörsten)
- ↑ Erich-Kästner-Realschule Tostedt participates in the campaign “We write your names” ( memento of the original from October 1st, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ "Returning the dignity." First "Name Brick" project at the Munster secondary school. In: Heide Kurier of April 25, 2010, p. 3 (PDF; 7.9 MB)
Web links
- Hörsten prisoner of war cemetery - Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation
- Hörsten prisoner of war cemetery on the Bergen-Belsen AG website (PDF; 2.5 MB)
- Soviet war cemetery Bergen-Lohheide (Hörsten) Volksbund
Coordinates: 52 ° 45 ′ 48 ″ N , 9 ° 53 ′ 42.3 ″ E