War Graves Agreement entered into force on August 12, 2000.
Promulgation in the Federal Law Gazette on June 5, 2000;
Article 1
(1) For the purposes of this Agreement, the terms shall have the following meanings:
a) “German war dead”:
- members of the German armed forces,
persons equated with them under German law,
other persons of German nationality who died in connection with the events of the 1914/1918 war or the 1939/1945 war in Slovakia, insofar as they
were under the protection of international humanitarian law at the time of their death;
b) “German war graves”:
the graves of German war dead lying in the territory of the Slovak Republic;
c) “German war gravesites”
the cemeteries existing in the territory of the Slovak Republic or parts of cemeteries to be newly established, in which German war dead are buried.
(2) For the purposes of this Agreement, the terms:
a) ‘Slovak war dead’:
- members of the Slovak armed forces,
- Slovaks who died while held captive by the Germans or as a result of such captivity by March 31, 1952,
- Slovaks who lost their lives as a result of Nazi acts of violence after September 1, 1939, or who died as a result of such acts by March 31, 1952,
- Slovaks who died in German internment camps between September 1, 1939, and May 8, 1945,
- Slovaks who were deported to Germany or held against their will in that territory during the period from September 1, 1939, to May 8, 1945, to perform forced labor and died during that time,
- Slovaks who were cared for by a recognized international refugee organization in assembly camps and died there after being transferred to a hospital in the period from May 9, 1945 to December 31, 1945.
b) “Slovak war graves”:
the graves of Slovak war dead located in the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany;
c) “Slovak war cemeteries”:
the cemeteries or parts of cemeteries existing in the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany or to be newly established, in which Slovak war dead are buried.
Article 2
(1) The Government of the Slovak Republic shall ensure the protection of German war graves and the permanent right of burial for German war dead within its territory and shall keep the surroundings of German war graves free of any installations that are incompatible with the dignity of these sites.
(2) The Government of the Federal Republic of Germany shall be entitled to design and maintain German war gravesites in the Slovak Republic at its own expense.
(3) The Federal Republic of Germany shall guarantee the maintenance and care of Slovak war graves in the sovereign territory of the Federal Republic of Germany at its own expense.
Article 3
(1) The Government of the Slovak Republic shall cede, for the past and the future, free of charge and for an unlimited period of time, the areas of land serving as German war graves as permanent resting places for the German war dead.
(2) Property rights shall not be affected by this Agreement. Any changes deemed necessary to the boundaries of areas of land used as German war gravesites shall be settled by mutual agreement between the Contracting Parties or the bodies designated by them. If, by agreement between the Contracting Parties, an area is no longer used, in whole or in part, for the intended purpose, this change shall result in the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany losing the right to use it.
(3) Should a site under paragraph 1 be needed for another use for imperative reasons of public policy, the Government of the Slovak Republic shall make available to the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany another suitable site and shall bear the costs of reburial of the dead and of the preparation of the new graves. The selection of the new site, its preparation and the reburial shall be carried out by mutual agreement.
Article 4
(1) The Government of the Slovak Republic, without incurring any costs and after having been presented with a plan for prior approval, shall allow the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany to consolidate the graves of German war dead whose reburial the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany considers necessary. The exhumation of German war dead shall be carried out by forces designated by the German side.
(2) A record shall be made of every reburial of a German war dead, stating the old and new grave location, personal details, the inscription on the dog tag or other identifying features.
(3) Insofar as formerly existing war gravesites have been abandoned due to infrastructural changes and the mortal remains of the war dead buried there can no longer be recovered, the Contracting Party in whose sovereign territory the war gravesite is located may, at the request and expense of the other Contracting Party, authorize the creation of a memorial in a dignified and locally appropriate form. Insofar as land has to be provided for this purpose or the consent of local authorities has to be obtained, each Contracting Party shall assist the other in making the appropriate applications or concluding contracts.
(4) Insofar as a provisional burial of German war dead found on Slovakian soil is required to enable a final burial at a German war grave site, the government of the Slovak Republic shall make arrangements for their proper and dignified provisional burial and for the marking of the graves.
Article 5
(1) The transfer of German war dead from the territory of the Slovak Republic to the Federal Republic of Germany requires the prior consent of the government of the Federal Republic of Germany. The government of the Slovak Republic shall only permit such a transfer if this consent has been obtained.
(2) The consent of the government of the Federal Republic of Germany is also required for applications to the government of the Slovak Republic for the transfer of German war dead to third countries.
(3) Paragraphs 1 and 2 shall apply mutatis mutandis to the repatriation of Slovak war dead to the Slovak Republic or to third countries.
(4) All costs and fees for the disinterment and repatriation of war dead shall be borne by the applicants.
(5) Representatives of the authorities of both Parties may be present when war dead are removed from their graves for repatriation.
Article 6
(1) The Government of the Federal Republic of Germany commissions the “Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V.” (hereafter referred to as the VOLKSBUND) with the technical implementation of the tasks in the Slovak Republic that arise for the German side from this Agreement.
(2) In the Slovak Republic, the Ministry of the Interior shall be the competent body for the implementation of this Agreement. The Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic may commission a third party with the technical implementation of this Agreement.
(3) If another organization or institution is to be commissioned with the technical implementation of this Agreement, the Contracting Parties shall agree on this.
Article 7
The Contracting Parties shall afford the institutions or organizations of the other side named in Article 6 of this Agreement every possible assistance, in particular access to records concerning war dead and war graves of the other side that are or will be available at authorities and other institutions of their country.
Article 8
(1) To carry out its tasks, the VOLKSBUND may send representatives, specialists and other personnel to the Slovak Republic.
(2) In carrying out the work arising from the implementation of this Agreement, the VOLKSBUND shall, wherever possible, employ local labor and materials under conditions prevailing in free competition.
(3) The VOLKSBUND may also import into and re-export from the Federal Republic of Germany or another member state of the European Union equipment, means of transport, materials and accessories that are necessary for the work mentioned in this agreement.
(4) The following applies to the customs clearance of these goods:
a) temporarily imported equipment and means of transport shall be cleared on importation into the Slovak Republic on an import-export customs declaration with the reservation that the said equipment and means of transport shall be re-exported after completion of the work;
b) materials and equipment intended for the construction, decoration or maintenance of graves, memorials or cemeteries shall remain free of import duties if proper customs declarations giving an exact list of the goods are submitted to the customs authorities. The customs declaration shall be accompanied by a declaration of commitment signed by a representative of the Volksbund, which contains the assurance that the said goods will be used only for the purposes provided for in this Agreement.
Article 9
(1) The transfer of the areas serving as German war graves, agreed in accordance with Article 3 (1), shall authorize the VOLKSBUND to carry out directly all the work of preparation and beautification of the war gravesites, as well as the construction of suitable access roads, recreation rooms and other facilities for visitors, within the framework of the relevant Slovak legislation.
(2) The VOLKSBUND shall ensure that all legal requirements with regard to hygiene and health are observed during these works and during reburials as stipulated by Slovakian law. It shall comply with the relevant legal and administrative regulations concerning cemetery regulations.
Article 10
This agreement shall enter into force one month after the date on which the Contracting Parties have notified each other that the necessary domestic requirements for entry into force have been met. The date of receipt of the last notification shall be decisive.
Done at Pressburg on March 2, 1999 in two copies, each in the German and Slovak languages, with each text being equally binding.
For the Government of the Federal Republic of GermanyFor the Government of theSlovak Republic