Südfriedhof

Cemetery description

In the largest cemetery in Nuremberg, Südfriedhof, there are 10 war grave-sites and memorial sites where thousands of World War II victims are buried. The graves of most of the foreign persons can be found in Section No. 93, which consists of three large burial sites.
In the south-western part, there are the graves of more than 3,500 Soviet soldiers, with the names of the identified victims having been inscribed upon brass memorial plaques in 2000.
The middle part contains the collective graves of 427 foreign persons of different nationalities whose remains were moved here from other cemeteries or burial sites. In the north-eastern part, there are the collective graves of 1,440 foreign persons (in many cases, their nationality remains unknown) from 19 different countries. Of these, 433 were forced labourers from Middle and Eastern Europe while 1,007 of them were displaced persons. Moreover, 149 graves were moved to this site from other sections of the cemetery and 433 - from other cemeteries. Additionally, in 1958, the remains of 858 victims were buried here who had been exhumed from the Landwasser cemetery for foreign persons and prisoners of war (mostly citizens of the USSR, but 32 are known to be Poles).
In 2020, by initiative of the Polish community, a brass memorial plaque was put up with the names of 95 Polish victims inscribed upon it (in the form as provided by the archival documentation). The plaque bears a bilingual motto that reads: ‘And the memory of them will stay with one forever,’ and information stating that the Südfriedhof cemetery in Nuremberg is the final resting place for 207 Polish victims of National Socialism.
Since this time, however, the Foundation for ‘Polish-German Reconciliation,’ after detailed research, has managed to establish the names of 270 Polish citizens buried in this cemetery.
Another commemoration to the Polish victims of the war is a bilingual brass memorial plaque with an inscription saying: ‘Here lie, in eternal peace, 81 Poles - men, women and children, forced labourers, victims of war and violence. 1940-1945.’

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