The municipal cemetery in Mönchengladbach Rheydt houses a burial site for Polish and Soviet victims of World War II. The majority were forced labourers and prisoners of war who died as a result of malnutrition, disease, or were killed in air raids, were murdered or committed suicide.
Section No. A10, located in the central part of the cemetery and by the main alley, is marked by a tall Orthodox cross and a stone stele bearing the following inscription: ‘In memory of those who were buried in foreign soil. From 1939 until 1945, 260 women, men and children lost their lives in Rheydt and Mgladbach as a result of violence, bombs, disease and suicide. Let us not forget about them.’
The five oblong rectangular graves are marked by gravestones with the names of the deceased inscribed upon them (some of them are hardly legible at present). This is the final resting place for 24 Polish citizens - mostly adults who, during World War II, were deported for forced labour and were killed in Rheydt.
Cemetery address: Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-Westphalia
Rheydt, Preyerstraße 102
41236
GPS: 51.1693556,6.4223486
Cemetery administration: mags Friedhofsverwaltung,
www.mags.de/gruenunterhaltung-friedhoefe/friedhoefe-bestattungen/,
service@mags.de,
Viersener Straße 292, 41063 Mönchengladbach,
02161 256890
