Nadolice Wielkie (Gross-Nädlitz) is located around 15 kilometers east of Wroclaw (Breslau) in Lower Silesia. The German collective cemetery there for around 18,000 war dead was dedicated on October 5, 2002. It is also known as Park pokoju (Peace Park).
Description of the cemetery
The German war cemetery in Nadolice Wielkie covers more than three hectares. All war dead still to be buried in Lower Silesia and the Opole region will find their final resting place in the collective cemetery. The idea of creating a peace park was incorporated into the overall design of the site. In the entrance building of the war cemetery there is a complete documentation listing the names of all German soldiers who lost their lives in present-day Poland or are still missing today. Civilian war dead - as far as known - are also listed. A small exhibition in the entrance building provides information about the tasks and aims of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. Inscribed granite steles at the edge of each burial block immortalize the names and dates of those buried there. There are no individual grave markers. the reburial of the war dead began in 1998. At the end of 2011, more than 16,000 of the existing 18,000 graves were occupied. German prisoners of war from a military hospital near Wroclaw are also buried in the cemetery. The war cemetery was dedicated on October 5, 2002.
History
As in the whole of Europe, the Second World War caused immeasurable suffering, especially in Poland. It left behind destroyed cities and millions of dead. Memorials and war cemeteries remind us of this and call for peace. Since the early 1990s, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. (German War Graves Commission) has been looking after German war graves in Poland and has set up the central war cemeteries in Joachimow-Mogily, Warsaw North, Krakow, Poznan, Przemysl, Mlawka, Modlin and Siemianowice, among others.
In 1998, the Volksbund also created a peace park on the site near Nadolice Wielkie (Gross Nädlitz), for which a large number of trees were donated. Regular visits by supporters and their relatives, a number of youth camps and the integration of the cemetery into village life turned the war cemetery in Nadolice Wielkie (Gross Nädlitz) into a place of German-Polish friendship long before its official inauguration. In May 2000, young soldiers from Poland and Germany worked together at a German military cemetery for the first time.
Special feature
More than 600 deciduous trees - rowan, maple and oak - grow on the Nadolice Wielkie war cemetery. For every tree planted there, a sponsor has donated the sum of 250 euros to help finance the expansion of the cemetery. All the trees bear a plaque with a number and the name of the donor. The Saxony regional association of the Volksbund Deutsches Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. took over the sponsorship of the war cemetery in 2002.
Photographs: Dietmar Tarnow and Dr. Dirk Reitz
