Up on a hill, by the road running from the town of Bechstedt towards Allendorf, there is a memorial site and there are 11 graves of Polish citizens - prisoners of the Buchenwald concentration camp murdered at the site by the SS on 19 December 1941. The reason for the execution was a conflict that had broken out between a Polish prisoner of war and a German farmer for whom the prisoner had worked. The conflict ended in both their deaths. As a way of retaliation for the death of the German farmer, however, the SS brought to Bechstadt, 11 Poles - prisoners of the Buchenwald concentration camp - who were publicly hanged in the presence of other prisoners and foreign forced labourers.
Nowadays, the place is marked by a monument bearing the following inscription: ‘The dead are giving a warning. Fascists murdered here, on 19 December 1941, 11 Polish patriots.’ Actually, not 11 but 12 graves can be found here. The twelfth victim was a young Polish boy who had died on the way to the Buchenwald concentration camp.
In front of the memorial site, there is an information board bearing information in three languages. The section was cleaned up and renovated in 2021.
