The death of a Polish Wehrmacht soldier in Russia: Bernhard Switon (1923-1942)

Bernhard Switon in military uniform, copy 2019, original owned by Dorota Ciernia
Bernhard Switon in military uniform, copy 2019, original owned by Dorota Ciernia

The case of Bernhard Switon in the culture of remembrance of the Second World War
 

Given that Bernhard Switon was called up to the Wehrmacht on 16 June 1942, i.e. in the middle of the war, and died only a few months later, he must have been sent to the front after only a short initiation. To that point, he had been living with his mother. There were no notes to be found about his employment status; presumably he was still at school. The circumstances which led him to the Wehrmacht are not known either, and it is not known how he was treated in the ranks of the Wehrmacht.

The war graves of fallen German soldiers are usually documented and can be researched via the German War Graves Commission. The German War Graves Commission, funded by donations from relatives and government support, has been working since the end of the First World War to maintain the graves of German soldiers from past wars. The organisation holds international youth workcamps and exhumation initiatives in an exchange with partner organisations from other countries under the guiding principles of “understanding-reconciliation-peace”[15]. The organisation also helps relatives search for the graves of their fallen relatives and organises trips to the relevant sites. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, a war graves agreement was signed between Germany and Russia which allowed the Commission to record and maintain the graves from the First and Second World Wars. The German military cemeteries in Russia as well as the Soviet cemeteries and war memorials in Germany are financed by Germany. This was yet another reason why the Russian President at the time, Boris Yeltsin, agreed to the bilateral governmental agreement on the tending of war graves since Russia did not have the funds to maintain graves and memorials in Germany after the collapse of the Soviet Union.[16] Since then, several German military cemeteries have been opened in Russia and further cooperation has been agreed.

When we made contact with the Commission, the assumption that Bernhard Switon had died on the Eastern Front was confirmed. According to the archives[17], he went to the Russian Soviet Republic as a soldier of the 49th infantry regiment where he fell on 29 November 1942 and was buried in the wood, three kilometres southeast of Moloje Optschiwalowo (a settlement that no longer exists today, approx. 80 km away from Nowgorod Welikij). However, we were not able to be given the current location of his grave as no features identifying Bernhard Switon were found during the exhumation work in the area, which is the only method for identifying the remains of deceased soldiers.

The last time we received information from the War Graves Commission (November 2020), only 62 of 869 fallen soldiers reported by name had been able to be recovered and identified in the area around Nowgorod. Deceased soldiers were identified by the identity disks that every German soldier carried with them. In the case of fallen soldiers, these were broken into two parts – one part remained with the deceased and one part was sent to be documented at the department in Berlin, along with the reference of where the soldier was buried. If the deceased are not found with the corresponding tags, it is often because the burial sites can no longer be clearly located, are not accessible or the identity tags are no longer present because they have been found and stolen by grave robbers who trade in Wehrmacht militaria on the black market.

The deceased who were buried in the area of Nowgorod Welikij were then buried in the German military cemetery (Pankowka) in Nowgorod, which was opened in the grounds of the former cemetery of the 1st Nowgorod South Luftwaffe Field Division in 1996. As Switon’s identity tag has not yet been found, it is not clear whether he has not yet been exhumed or whether he remained nameless when the bodies were moved to Nowgorod cemetery. On the other hand, however, Switon, like hundreds of other fallen soldiers reported by name, was recorded in the German War Graves Commission’s commemorative book for the Nowgorod war graves.

 

[15] Siegl, Elfie: Versöhnung über Gräbern: Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge in Russland, in: Zeitschrift Osteuropa, Vol. 58, No. 6, Geschichtspolitik und Gegenerinnerung: Krieg, Gewalt und Trauma im Osten Europas, June 2008, p. 309.

[16] cf.: ibid., p. 309 f.

[17] Information about fallen soldiers from the Federal archive, PA department in Berlin, which was made available to the German War Graves Commission.

Media library
  • Bernhard Switon in military uniform, copy 2019

    Bernhard Switon in military uniform, copy 2019, original owned by Dorota Ciernia
  • Older sister Antonja, mother Jozefa and the husband of Bernhard Switon’s sister, copy 2019

    Older sister Antonja, mother Jozefa and the husband of Bernhard Switon’s sister, copy 2019, original owned by Dorota Ciernia
  • Bernhard Switon’s brother (?) – Adalbert/Wojciech, copy 2019

    Bernhard Switon’s brother (?) – Adalbert/Wojciech, copy 2019, original owned by Dorota Ciernia
  • Entry from the civil death register for Bernhard Switon, 23.11.1943, black and white copy (29.10.2020)

    Entry from the civil death register for Bernhard Switon, 23.11.1943, black and white copy (29.10.2020)
  • Index card from the residents' registration office on Bernhard Switon, 23.11.1943, black and white copy (29.10.2020)

    Index card from the residents' registration office on Bernhard Switon, 23.11.1943, black and white copy (29.10.2020)
  • Burial notification document for Bernhard Switon, copy 2000

    Burial notification document for Bernhard Switon, copy 2000, Original in: German Federal Archives; Berlin, Ger-many; Register of casualty and burial notifications of fallen German soldiers 1939-1945 (...
  • Letter information from the German War Graves Commission (Deutscher Volksbund Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V.) regarding Bernhard Switon, 16.05.2019

    Letter information from the German War Graves Commission (Deutscher Volksbund Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V.) regarding Bernhard Switon, 16.05.2019
  • Jozefa Olek’s birth certificate, 10/3/1888; black and white copy

    Jozefa Olek’s birth certificate, 10/3/1888; black and white copy, obtained from Dorota Ciernia on 19/11/2020; Original owned by Kalisz National Archives
  • Anton Switon’s birth certificate, 23/5/1891; black and white copy

    Anton Switon’s birth certificate, 23/5/1891; black and white copy, obtained from Dorota Ciernia on 17/11/2020; Original owned by Kalisz National Archives
  • Marriage certificate of Anton Switon and Jozefa Olek, 04.12.1915, with notes on the dates of death of the spouses.

    Marriage certificate of Anton Switon and Jozefa Olek, 04.12.1915, with notes on the dates of death of the spouses.
  • Death certificate of Jozefa Switon, 09.06.1969, black and white copy (12.11.2020)

    Death certificate of Jozefa Switon, 09.06.1969, black and white copy (12.11.2020)
  • Registration file of Anton Switon, 2 pages, black and white copy (12.11.2020)

    Registration file of Anton Switon, 2 pages, black and white copy (12.11.2020)
  • Registration file of Anton Switon Jr. (son of Jozefa), black and white copy (12.11.2020)

    Registration file of Anton Switon Jr. (son of Jozefa), black and white copy (12.11.2020)
  • Johann Switon und Anastasia Plotek’s marriage certificate, 04/6/1884; black and white copy

    Johann Switon und Anastasia Plotek’s marriage certificate, 04/6/1884; black and white copy, obtained from Dorota Ciernia on 17/11/2020; Original owned by Kalisz National Archives
  • Family tree of the Olek family, created with MyHeritage.com

    Family tree of the Olek family, created with MyHeritage.com, copy received from Dorota Ciernia on 17.11.2020; original in the possession of the Ciernia/Olek family.
  • Antonja (bottom right), Jozefa Switon’s daughter, copy 2020

    Antonja (bottom right), Jozefa Switon’s daughter, copy 2020, original owned by Dorota Ciernia
  • Family tree of Bernhard Switon

    Family tree of Bernhard Switon according to information from Dorota Ciernia and archive documents, compiled by Kathrin Lind, 24.11.2020
  • German military cemetery in Nowgorod, 2014

    German military cemetery in Nowgorod, 2014
  • German military cemetery in Nowgorod, 2007

    German military cemetery in Nowgorod, 2007
  • German military cemetery in Nowgorod, 2014

    German military cemetery in Nowgorod, 2014
  • German military cemetery in Nowgorod, 2014

    German military cemetery in Nowgorod, 2014
  • German military cemetery in Nowgorod, 2014

    German military cemetery in Nowgorod, 2014
  • German military cemetery in Nowgorod, 2007

    German military cemetery in Nowgorod, 2007
  • German military cemetery in Nowgorod, 2007

    German military cemetery in Nowgorod, 2007
  • German military cemetery in Nowgorod, 2014

    German military cemetery in Nowgorod, 2014