Baumschulenweg Friedhof

Cemetery description

The new part of the Baumschulweg municipal cemetery (north-east of Kiefholz Street) holds the war graves of Polish citizens. The site is located in the middle part of the cemetery and is marked as No. 9. In 2000, next to the alley, a bilingual plaque, sponsored by the Polish Embassy in Berlin, was placed next to the alley. It bears the following inscription: ‘In memory of Polish forced labourers, prisoners of concentration and labour camps, victims of the German invasion of Poland and of the Nazi persecution during the years of World War II 1939-1945.’ („Zum Gedenken an die polnischen Zwangsarbeiter und Häftlinge aus Konzentrations- und Arbeitslagern. Sie sind Opfer des deutschen Überfalls auf Polen und der nationalsozialistischen Verfolgung während des Zweiten Weltkrieges 1939-1945”).
Burial section No. 9 is part of a larger war graves burial section that is the final resting place for approximately 350 forced labourers who came from different countries, as well as German soldiers and civilians. A number of the victims remain anonymous. Until now, 53 Polish war graves marked by stone plaques bearing the victims’ personal data have survived. Initially, there were a lot more Polish graves; however, some of them were dismantled having been pronounced as graves not subject to protection and as graves that lacked the status of war graves. Other graves were moved to various cemeteries.
On the basis of the queries conducted in 2022, it was possible to establish the identity of more than 180 Polish citizens buried in this cemetery.
The old part of the Baumschulweg Cemetery, on the other side of Kiefholz Street, also houses burial sections that hold the war graves of, above all, German victims. Additionally, the site commemorates 1,195 victims of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp whose bodies were burnt here in the crematorium and whose ashes were buried here in the mass graves or in other places like the Altglienicke Cemetery. This place is marked by a stone plaque from the 1950s bearing an inscription that reads: ‘In memory of 1,195 murdered anti-fascists whose ashes are buried here,’ („Den 1195 ermordeten Antifaschisten deren Asche hier bestattet ist”). The victims whose ashes are buried here remain anonymous. It can be assumed, though, that Polish citizens are among them.

Address details