The municipal cemetery in the Zagreb district of Gornje Vrapèe is the resting place of German soldiers who died in captivity during the Second World War.
Description of the cemetery
The German war cemetery is located on a hill in the northern part of the municipal cemetery. A paved stairway leads to the central memorial site with a stone high cross and memorial slab. On the lawn are grave markers bearing the names - and where known - the dates of the deceased. Shaped bushes break up the picture.
Burial
More than 650 prisoners of war are buried in the cemetery in Gornje Vrapèe. Most of them died after the end of the Second World War. At that time, there were camps for German prisoners of war spread across all the constituent republics of the newly founded Yugoslavia. From 1945 to 1949, the internees were used as laborers. The last of them did not return home until 1950.
History
The cemetery, which was established shortly after the Second World War, fell into disrepair and was neglected over the following decades. Only a few fragments of the original gravestones remain.
In December 1996, the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Croatia concluded a war graves agreement. Since then, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. (German War Graves Commission) has looked after three war graves of the Second World War in Croatia with more than 4,500 dead on behalf of the Federal Republic.
The site in Gornje Vrapèe was restored in 1995 and 1996. The grave markers were modeled on the original gravestones. The inauguration took place on May 11, 1996.
Special feature
A sight in Zagreb that is closely linked to the Second World War is the Griè Tunnel in the Upper Town, around eight kilometers from the war cemetery. The tunnel was built to protect the population from air raids and is around 350 meters long. At its center is a 100-meter-long and around five-meter-wide hall, from which four further tunnel tubes branch off. After 1945, the tunnel fell into oblivion. It was used again during the Croatian War in the 1990s. It has been open to the public since 2016 following its restoration.
