Krefeld

Tombstone of a polish war victim with one of the additional stones

On the other side, there is the so-called old cemetery. A few dozen meters from the entrance, there is a signposted plot of war victims with 282 graves of forced laborers and 18 concentration camp prisoners who worked in the work unit at the Thyssen metallurgical plant. Russians are buried in 263 graves and 8 Polish nationals lie in separate graves. On an additional plaque, which contains names that undoubtedly belong to Russians, there are three Polish-sounding names. They were probably the victims of bombings of the industrialised area of the town and its immediate surroundings.

In the district of Fichtenhain, located at the southern end of the town, Stalag VI J was located. On the 22nd of November 1941, a group of 150 Cadet Officers from the Polish Army, prisoners of the September Campaign, came to the camp from Stalag VI G Bonn. They were deprived of their officer status and forced to carry out farm work in the surrounding villages. No information was found about the Polish prisoners of war buried at the cemetery, even though three Polish soldiers are on the list of burials.

In some cases, apart from identical gravestones with only the name, surname, year of birth and death, there are additional gravestones with more data (missing metal letters in the brackets, original spelling preserved):

S. † P.

RUTKOWSKI

LEON

U 20.11.1886

U. 13.1.1945

Z KOWL(A)

(M)ODL SI(E) ZA

NAMI DROGI

(M)ONZ OJCIEC

DZIADE(K)

[R.I.P.

RUTKOWSKI