Neuer Friedhof Tangerhütte

Cemetery description

The New Cemetery (Neuer Friedhof) in Tangerhütte contains the graves of prisoners of war who died during World War II in the local lazaret (field hospital) belonging to one of the largest prisoner-of-war camps - Stalag XI A in Altengrabow. To Lazaret marked with the letter T, were also brought, from other parts of Germany, prisoners of war ill with tuberculosis - mostly in its most advanced stage. Therefore, the mortality rate among the patients was extremely high. The dead were buried in a separate area in the cemetery. From 1940 until the end of the war, 450-500 prisoners of war of different nationalities were buried there, including about 200 Poles (the inquiry conducted by the Foundation for ‘Polish-German Reconciliation’ confirmed 210 names). In the post-war years, citizens of France, Italy, Yugoslavia, Belgium, and the United Kingdom exhumed the remains of their fellow countrymen and reburied them in their home countries. The remaining graves were moved further on to form a homogeneous war graves burial section.
Right after the war, residents of Tangerhütte placed, on the collective military grave, a stone bearing the following inscription in German: ‘As a warning to others.’ In 1971, through the initiative of Polish construction workers employed in building sites in the German Democratic Republic, a monument in the shape of a tall obelisk consisting of stylised crosses was erected. Memorial plaques are affixed on both sides of the monument. These are inscribed in Polish and German with the words: ‘In memory of Polish officers and soldiers who died in Fascist slavery between 1940 and 1945.’
The burial section underwent renovation work in 2008, in which the concrete stone and the plaques with the inscription were refurbished. What is more, at the entrance to the burial section an information board was placed saying: ‘Here lie 255 persons of Polish, Serbian and Czech nationalities. They died between 1940 and 1945.’
On 16 plinths standing on both sides of the alley leading up to the obelisk, granite plaques inscribed with the victims’ first and last names can be found.
The burial site is regularly visited by relatives of the deceased and by representatives of the Polish Diaspora. The state of preservation of the burial section and the elements of the memorial is good.

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