The German war cemetery in Iași is located in the north-east of the country in the Moldova region and is part of the "Cimitirul Eternitatea" ("Eternity Cemetery"), the largest cemetery in the city.
Cemetery description
Groups of symbolic crosses mark all the burial plots in the grounds, which are planted with trees and rose bushes. A restored high cross from the First World War on a small memorial square is the central point. Since 2019, the names of 2,600 dead have been inscribed on 26 aluminum plaques.
Occupancy
In 1940, the imminent threat from the Soviet Union prompted Romania to move closer to the German Reich, which sent a military mission. As a result of an attempted coup, the country was transformed from a constitutional monarchy into a military dictatorship.
Romanian troops took part in the German attack on the Soviet Union from June 1941, but in view of their own losses and the gradual signs of German defeat, their readiness for war waned considerably.
Following a coup d'état in August 1944, Romania broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, issued a declaration of war and concluded an armistice with the Soviet Union in September. Romanian soldiers then fought with the Soviet army against Germany.
Around 380,000 Romanians died in the Second World War - both soldiers and civilians. At the "Cimitirul Eternitatea" in Iasi, 3,850 German soldiers were buried in individual graves on five plots during the war.
Today, around 2,200 German soldiers known by name rest in Blocks 1 and 2. Metal plaques at the edges of the plots document their names. An additional area made available to the Volksbund made a third block possible. in 1996, 840 dead were reburied there from the former plots D and F of the cemetery.
In addition, the mortal remains of more than 4,000 dead from several municipalities were reburied.
History
After the war, the cemeteries fell into disrepair. The graves on plots C and E with 770 dead were leveled and have been completely covered with Romanian civilian graves since the end of the 1980s. As a result, the location of the individual graves previously visible above ground could no longer be reconstructed.
in 1993/94, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. (German War Graves Commission) negotiated the securing and restoration of the remaining cemeteries. The city council approved the redesign of plots F and G, now known as blocks 1 and 2, and the addition of a third trestle. The war cemetery was opened to the public on September 21, 1996.
The German-Romanian War Graves Agreement came into force on December 10, 1997. The contractual partner of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. is the Romanian "Government Office for the Veneration of Heroes" ("Oficiului Naþional pentru Cultul Eroilor") in Bucharest.
Soon after the fall of the Iron Curtain - from 1999 - the number of work camps organized by the German War Graves Commission in Romania for young people and work assignments for German soldiers, who volunteered to carry out repair and maintenance work on war gravesites, increased. The Romanian Ministry of Defense and the central and local authorities supported these activities. The Romanian military took part in the maintenance work, accommodated the groups at its bases and fed them there.
Special feature
German soldiers were buried on the "Cimitirul Eternitatea" as early as the First World War - some in individual graves, but most in an "Osuar" (ossuary) together with Romanian soldiers.
During the First World War, an estimated 53,000 German soldiers died in Romania. Almost 50,000 of the war dead, including more than 34,000 known by name, are recorded in Romanian cemetery lists. These list 164 municipalities as cemetery or grave locations.
