Hauptfriedhof Ludwigshafen

Cemetery description

In the southern part of the main cemetery (Hauptfriedhof) in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, there is a large war graves burial site. The available publications describing the cemetery mention 362 war-time graves of victims from Poland, the USSR, France and Yugoslavia, who died in air bombardments of working plants such as IG Farben or BASF, or died as a result of inhumane working and living conditions in Ludwigshafen and its surroundings. It can be assumed, on the basis of the archive lists of graves, that the site is the final resting place for a larger number of World War II victims.
Among the 362 graves, 247 are graves of Polish citizens, but only 195 victims are known by their first and last names. Their personal data are engraved upon metal plaques. However, in many cases, the victims’ first names were Germanised and their last names misspelt. Some of the deceased were prisoners of war. They are commemorated by means of a monument which bears an inscription in Polish and German placed on two plaques, saying: ‘In memory of the Polish soldiers, the Mannheim Käfertal camp prisoners of war who died in air bombardments of Ludwigshafen, or fell during World War II.’
The other Polish graves are those of forced labourers deported to the Third Reich. At least 50 graves of Polish citizens were moved here from other cemeteries in Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and the whole district area. In the central part of this burial site, there is a large rectangular obelisk monument with a Russian inscription that reads: ‘Here lie 168 Soviet citizens. Eternal glory to the heroes who fell in the struggle for freedom.’
The state of preservation of the burial site, the gravestones and the memorials is very good (June 2019).

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