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Polish graves at the Perlacher Forst cemetery in Munich

There are many Polish graves in the Perlacher Forst in Munich. The media recently drew attention to the site during a visit by the Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, when the politician laid two wreaths in the cemetery during his time as a guest at a renowned international conference in Munich. One of them was laid at the memorial stone for the forced labourers from many nations, including Poland; the other at the memorial to the soldiers of the so-called Świętokrzyska brigade. This gesture generated a great deal of controversy in Poland, as some historians accuse the brigade members of collaboration. Polish victims of justice who were sentenced to death by National Socialist courts and executed with a hatchet in the nearby Stadelheim prison also found their final resting place in the cemetery.

The cemetery at the Perlacher Forst, Munich 2018

Krzysztof Ruchniewicz / Porta Polonica 2018

The people executed in Stadelheim

Four years later, in 1954, a second Grove of Honour was created to contain the mortal remains of the 93 people executed in Stadelheim, who had originally been buried in various places in the cemetery. The names of all the victims are engraved on the memorial stone unveiled in 1996. One of the people who found his final resting place there was Henryk Pecak, a forced labourer who was executed for listening to the BBC news in Polish. Another victim was Jan Hebda, who fled with two Poles to join the Polish military. Although they managed to cross the Swiss border, they were arrested, extradited to the German authorities. and executed in 1943. Around this time Waldemar Schidhabel, a Pole of German descent accused of "high treason", was also executed.

The victims of forced labour

In 1960 a memorial complex for forced labourers, prisoners of war and prisoners of concentration camps (displaced persons) was built. 1,192 people from 12 countries who died between 1942 and 1946 were buried there. The second largest group buried here, after Russians from the former Soviet Union, are Poles (274 graves). People from Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Greece, Turkey, France, Belgium and the Netherlands have also found their final resting places here. A monument has been erected in the centre of the complex. On the lawn there are stone tablets bearing the names of the deceased. The grove was planted with birch trees symbolising life and rebirth.

Polish soldiers

In 1998 the coffins of nine Polish soldiers who died after the war, (including members of the Świętokrzyska brigade), were transferred from the crypts of the Munich West cemetery to the vicinity in order to bury them in a specially created area within the memorial complex. The memorial service took place in the presence of representatives from the Polish Consulate and the Council for the Preservation of Remembrance of Battle and Martyrdom (Rada Ochrony Pamięci Walk i Męczeństwa). The following inscription was engraved in Polish on a granite plaque with the Polish eagle: Tu spoczywają żołnierze polscy zmarli w drodze do Ojczyzny. Cześć Ich pamięci(Here rest Polish soldiers who died on their way back home. Honour their memory).

Krzysztof Ruchniewicz, March 2018