Möhnefriedhof Neheim

Cemetery description

The north-western part of the Neheim Möhnefriedhof cemetery holds the graves of Polish and Soviet forced labourers who, in the vast majority, died in air bombardments. The most tragic air raid took place on the night of 17 May 1943, when British planes destroyed the dam on the Möhne River, and the waves of released water - 10-15 metres high - flooded the town of Neheim. The residents and the foreign forced labourers were hiding in the underground air-raid shelters. However, the foreigners were forbidden to leave the place and, consequently, it was them who became the largest group of victims of the raid. The cemetery is the final resting place for 893 victims of those tragic events, 632 of whom were Poles, Ukrainians and Soviets. The Polish and the Soviet citizens rest in two burial sites marked by memorial plaques. However, the graves lack headstones and there is no list of the victims’ names available.

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