Waldfriedhof Lauheide

Cemetery description

The Waldfriedhof Münster–Lauheide Forest Cemetery is located approximately 4 km away from Münster, in the direction of Telgte (the road is marked by appropriate signage).
The cemetery is the burial site for 1,147 victims of World War II of various nationalities, including 897 Germans, 159 citizens of the USSR, 77 of Poland and 14 of the Netherlands.
The first to have been interred were soldiers who died in military hospitals in the city in December 1941, and local residents who died in air raids on Münster in October 1943 and September 1944. Among the victims were 215 women and 40 children. The site is also the final resting place for 28 foreign citizens.
In 1946, the Allies established an honorary war graves cemetery over an area of 0,63 hectares in the north-eastern part of the forest cemetery, and 740 British soldiers and 82 persons from civilian organisations were buried here. The site is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It also houses the graves of Polish citizens.
The Polish war graves cemetery was re-arranged in 2009 using funds from the Council for the Protection of Memory of Combat and Martyrdom and from the Council for War Veterans. The topmost part of this burial site is marked by a cross bearing an inscription and 77 crosses bearing the victims’ names. This is the final resting place for forced labourers and Polish soldiers. The available sources assume that 18 soldiers of the 1st Polish Armoured Division died after the war was over (between 5 August 1945 and the years 1948-1949). The soldiers were interred in sections Nos. 8-21, 23-25, and 27-28. The memorials are made of light sandstone and have been preserved in a very good state.

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