Not far from the Forest Cemetery (Waldfriedhof) is the Memorial for the Victims of the Nazi Regime (Gedenkstätte für die Opfer der Gewaltherrschaft), also known as the ‘Russian Cemetery’ or the ‘Cemetery for Foreign Victims’. It is a large, fenced-off war cemetery containing the graves of 476 citizens from Poland and the USSR. These individuals were male and female forced labourers, Soviet prisoners of war, prisoners of the sub-camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp, Hungarian Jewish women (former prisoners of the Auschwitz concentration camp), and 136 children of women forced labourers, 350 of whom died in the so-called ‘orphanage’ belonging to the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg.
The available data have made it possible to establish that 111 Polish citizens rest in the cemetery, and 74 of them were children of Polish women forced labourers employed in the Volkswagen plant.
In place of the former mass graves, between 1970 and 1971, rows of stone plaques were put up with the names of victims and their countries of origin. Also, a monument was erected which solely commemorates the Soviet prisoners of war. Additionally, a memorial plaque with the information about the victims’ places of origin, groups, and their fate was installed.
