Magdeburg-Westerhüsen

The district of Westerhüsen in the south of the city of Magdeburg was incorporated in 1910. The Westerhüsen cemetery dates back to 1908. In 1942, the "Diana" forced labor camp was established to the north of the cemetery. The people imprisoned there, mainly from Eastern Europe, were forced to work in the nearby Fahlberg-List chemical plant. Due to the poor living conditions, there were many deaths, including children born in the camp. In the early summer of 1941, an open section of 1500 m² in the southern part of the site was fenced off from the cemetery. Between 1941 and 1945, forced laborers, prisoners of war and inmates of Magdeburg's concentration camps, especially the "Diana" camp, were buried in this part of the Westerhüser cemetery. The burial ground at the Westerhüser cemetery was chosen because it was located away from residential areas and was already extensively fenced in. The surrounding trees provided additional privacy from the outside. The largest groups among the dead, who came from Eastern Europe, were Russians, Ukrainians and Poles. The official lists of graves include Czechs, Serbs, a Latvian and even two Chinese. After the end of the war, this so-called "foreigners' cemetery" was redesigned until 1947 on the instructions of the Soviet military administration and named the "Field of the United Nations" in honour of the United Nations, which was founded in 1945. A memorial from this period with a hammer and sickle can still be found next to the burial plots. The gravestones, like the grave borders, were made of grey artificial concrete stone. In the period from 1945 to 1950, various dead people buried here were exhumed and transferred to their home countries, such as France, Belgium, Denmark, Holland and Norway. Exact details have not survived, so no precise figures can be given for the number of dead buried in the cemetery. In 1995 and 1996, the cemetery was redesigned to its present form and provided with new grave markers. in 2005, a memorial stone was erected in front of the cemetery entrance on Holsteiner Straße to commemorate the war victims resting here and their fate. Together with the city of Magdeburg, a weatherproof, metal name book and an information board were erected in 2009 to provide visitors with more detailed information about the 800 people resting here and the circumstances of their deaths. The names of the dead are listed in alphabetical order for each grave block. War graves such as those in the "Field of the United Nations" commemorate the sad fates of the past and are permanently preserved as memorials against hatred and violence. In this way, future generations will be made aware of the consequences of war and violence. The name book for the dead is intended to give visitors to the cemetery the opportunity to find out more about the dead based on the dates of their lives and their origins. Behind every name is a human life and behind every person is a fate