The Westfriedhof Cemetery contains the largest burial sites for war victims in Oberhausen - 2,218 victims of both World Wars. During World War II, 17,000 prisoners of war and forced labourers, mostly from Middle and Eastern Europe, were employed in Oberhausen in coal mining and the steel foundries to do the hardest and the most dangerous jobs. Many died as a result of exhaustion, lack of food, poor living conditions, lack of medical care, and brutal treatment on the part of their employers or supervisors.
The Westfriedhof Cemetery is the final resting place for 1,202 foreign forced labourers and prisoners of war of the World War II era. Their graves can be found in sections Nos. 18 and 58. The deceased were most frequently buried in single or double graves marked by wooden crosses or numbers. Of these, 512 were victims of air bombardments.
The cemetery is also the final resting place for 101 Polish citizens (91 names have been identified). Their graves are located in section No. 58 (59 persons) and section No. 18 (32 persons).
Cemetery address: Oberhausen, North Rhine-Westphalia
Lirich, Emscherstraße 92
46049 Oberhausen
GPS: 51.483171,6.820409
Cemetery administration: Stadtverwaltung Oberhausen, Fachbereich 2-4-70,
www.oberhausen.de,
info@oberhausen.de,
Schwartzstr. 72, 46042 Oberhausen,
+49208 825 2412
