Zehrensdorf Indian Cemetery

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Graves in the Zehrensdorf Indian Cemetery

The Zehrensdorf Indian Cemetery is a German military cemetery for Indian prisoners of war soldiers of the First World War. It is the final resting place for 206 Indian soldiers that in captivity died and on the cemetery Zehrensdorf were buried. The burial site , under the administration of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), was inaugurated in 2005 after a thorough reconstruction.

background

Military training area

In 1905 the Zehrensdorf district had an area of ​​1150 hectares with 304 inhabitants. With the establishment of a military training area in 1909, the population was resettled.

POW camp

Tatar stone in the Zehrensdorf cemetery from 1916, with an inscription in the İske-imlâ alphabet

During the First World War , two prisoner-of-war camps (later called half-moon camps and vineyard camps ) were set up at the military training area for the French, British, Russians, Tatars, Bashkirs and Indian members of the armed forces of the British Empire who had been captured by Germany on the Western Front . Dead prisoners of war were buried in the Zehrensdorf cemetery. After the war, memorials were erected for them , such as the so-called Tatar Stone , designed by the German architect Otto Stiehl (1860-1940).

Repopulation

The resettlement of Zehrensdorf began in 1921; this was completed in 1927 with the establishment of the community of Zehrensdorf.

Military use

Because of the renewed military use, the community of Zehrensdorf was dissolved again and the military training area was also used from 1936 to 1945 for testing and developing new weapon systems.

After the area was occupied by the Red Army in 1945, Zehrensdorf became the main site of the western group of the Soviet armed forces . The Commonwealth War Graves Commission did not receive permission from the Soviet Army to take care of the graves.

New district

In 1994, after the Soviet armed forces withdrew from reunified Germany , the Zehrensdorf district was made accessible to the public and incorporated into the Wünsdorf community .

Indian soldiers in World War I

On the side of the British armed forces of the First World War there were also associations of the British Indian Army . In 1914/15 two Indian infantry divisions, the Meerut and Lahore divisions , fought on the western front near Neuve-Chapelle . Their losses were also very high due to the soldiers' health problems, they lost over 80 percent of their crew strength. In 1915 the Indian infantry divisions were withdrawn behind the front and replaced by two cavalry divisions . A total of around 160,000 Indians served in France and Belgium during the First World War.

Indian soldiers in the German prisoner of war camp

The Indian prisoners of war were taken to the Zehrensdorf prisoner of war camp. 206 Indians died in captivity and were buried in the local cemetery. Since the Commonwealth War Graves Commission was not allowed to enter the cemetery after 1945, the dead were commemorated with a plaque at the Neuve-Chapelle military cemetery in France since 1964 . The memorial plaque contains the following inscription:

IN HONORED MEMORY OF THESE MEN
WHO DIED IN CAPTIVITY
AND WERE BURIED AT ZEHRENSDORF NEAR BERLIN ”.

Cemetery of honor

Negotiations for the reconstruction of the prisoner of war cemetery in Zehrensdorf began immediately after the reunification of Germany. The Federal Republic of Germany and the State of Brandenburg set the key data with the CWGC and signed a joint usage contract. In 2002, work began to secure and restore the cemetery, in which the city of Zossen participated together with the CWGC.

The reconstruction depended on the specified design requirements for CWGC, hereafter was in a line of sight of the "Stone of Remembrance" ( Altar Stone ), the "Cross of Sacrifice" ( high cross -hook Crusader Sword) and the uniform and symmetrically aligned grave stones of white calcareous sandstone erected. A continuous lawn , which is planted with some trees and bushes , was chosen as the green area .

On October 29, 2005, Edward, 2nd Duke of Kent , visited the rebuilt cemetery in Zehrensdorf in his capacity as President of the CWGC.

Web links

Commons : Zehrensdorf Indian Military Cemetery  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 52 ° 10 ′ 22 ″  N , 13 ° 30 ′ 9 ″  E