Arnsberg - Neheim memorial, "Möhnefriedhof" The Second World War also brought hardship and unspeakable suffering to Neheim. In 1940 and 1941, the town was bombed several times; countless houses were destroyed or damaged. On the night of May 17, 1943, an air raid caused a catastrophic disaster for Neheim. 19 Royal Air Force bombers, each loaded with a four-ton rolling bomb, were approaching the Eder, Sorpe and Möhne dams. At 00:27, the attack on the inadequately secured dam wall of Lake Möhne began. The first bombs missed their target, the fifth approach - it was 00:45 - was successful. The rolling bomb was dropped from an altitude of 18 meters, rolled towards the wall, sank into the depths and detonated. The explosion caused the wall to collapse over a width of 30 meters, and the pressure of the water widened the breach to around 77 meters. The water masses of around 100 million cubic meters crashed into the Möhne valley in a 10 to 15 m high flood wave, bringing death and destruction, and reached Neheim in 25 minutes. The inhabitants of Neheim were in the air raid shelters as the air raid warning had been sounded repeatedly. The foreign workers and prisoners of war were forbidden to leave their accommodation. The Möhne valley had become a valley of death: 893 men, women and children who died in the falling floods were recovered and buried in the Möhne cemetery. In 1944 and 1945, Neheim was again the target of bombing raids and low-flying aircraft. With the closure of the Ruhr basin, the front moved ever closer. In the days from April 7 to 14, Neheim came under increasing artillery and low-flying bombardment. On April 14, the last German soldiers surrendered. In these battles and skirmishes, Neheim suffered 38 civilian deaths and 53 fallen German soldiers. The fallen soldiers were laid to rest in the extended military cemetery. 893 victims of the Möhne disaster were buried after the war in six memorials marked by memorial stones:
- 131 men, women and children who could be identified,
- 50 unknown Germans,
- 59 French prisoners of war,
- 7 Belgian prisoners of war,
- 14 Dutch civilian workers
- as well as 632 men and women of Polish, Ukrainian and Russian nationality conscripted to work in the local armaments industry.
The majority of the dead French and Belgian prisoners of war and the Dutch civilian workers were transferred to their home countries after being identified. The words
"To the dead as a tribute, to the living as a reminder"
are inscribed above the memorial site, which was dedicated on 17 May 1952.