Berlin-Pankow, Friedhof Pankow VI

This relatively small burial ground of just 1.2 hectares is not a cemetery in the conventional sense. Due to a lack of space in the surrounding Pankow cemeteries, a burial ground for 352 victims of war and tyranny, most of whom died in April/May 1945 or late 1945/early 1946, was built near the actual Pankow VI cemetery in the middle of the Schönholzer Heide park. A former garbage dump, now covered with greenery, separates the now closed Pankow VI cemetery from this burial ground, which is only separated from the park by a fence. Burials were only made here from the end of 1945 to 1948, mostly from emergency burial sites, such as the grounds of Pankow Hospital, the Bolle sports field, a school garden, the Saarland colony or Niederschönhausen Palace Park. The large number of 116 unidentified people testifies to the emergency situation of the last weeks of the war. Many people also died immediately after the end of the war as a result of the poor housing situation, inadequate medical care and hunger. The refugees buried here belong to the large number of over 16 million people who fled from the former German eastern territories (Silesia, East Prussia, East Pomerania, East Brandenburg) as well as from Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania and the Baltic states, Memelland and the city of Danzig from the advancing front or were later expelled or deported. The refugees died of exhaustion, disease or other war-related causes in a refugee camp in Pankow.