Friedhof Am Wehl

Cemetery description

The Forest Cemetery (Waldfriedhof) in Am Wehl is the final resting place for 2,200 victims of both World War I and World War II. The graves of the Polish citizens can be found in the so-called ‘Russian Cemetery,’ in the section for foreign victims and in the section for victims of the hard prison in Hameln. All the three places are marked by information boards that contain some information about the war victims buried in the cemetery and a short history of their persecution.

The Russian Cemetery
Half way through the cemetery and by its western edge, there is the so-called ‘Russian Cemetery.’ This is the final resting place for Russian prisoners of war that died in World War I. During the Second World War, it was a burial place for foreigners, above all, forced labourers and fallen soldiers who were buried here in mass graves. However, the exact number of those interred here has not been established. During the war, 360 cases of the death of male and female forced labourers were registered in the town of Halne and in the then Hameln-Pyrmont district. Among these were 53 women and 89 children. Most died as a result of critical living conditions in the last months of the war. After the war, the last remains of the forced labourers and soldiers from Western countries were exhumed and taken away to the victims’ home countries. The graves of more than 300 citizens of the USSR and Poland have remained in this cemetery.

The burial section for foreign war victims
In the central part of the cemetery, in burial Section FII, there are the graves of 16 victims of the Hameln prison who came from France, the Netherlands and Belgium, whose remains were moved here from Section C I. This part of the cemetery also contains the graves of 24 male and female forced labourers who mostly came from Poland (15 persons) and the USSR. The names of the victims are inscribed upon red plaques arranged in rows in the cemetery.

The burial section for victims of the Zuchthaus Hameln prison (C I)
This burial section can be found in the middle stretch of the cemetery, next to its Eastern border. Approximately 450 inmates died in the Hameln prison, 181 of whom were buried here. After the war, some of the graves were exhumed. In the 1970s, the graves were dismantled, and in 2006, they were reconstructed and made into a memorial. Following several transformations, the present-day section holds the graves of 140 victims of the hard prison in Hameln. They are marked by small headstones that bear the victims’ names inscribed upon them. There is also an information board and a memorial dedicated to the 181 victims buried in this section. Among those buried are 11 foreign victims, including 3 Poles.

Address details