The Südwestfriedhof Cemetery, the largest municipal cemetery in Essen, and located at Fulerumer Street, is the final resting place for the highest number (2,878) of victims of World War I and World War II from the Essen area. The plan of the cemetery, with the war grave burial sections marked upon it, can be found right next to the main entrance. In this cemetery, 2, 772 victims of both World Wars rest in several places located in its southern (to the right of the main entrance) part. The largest group of the deceased - 1,287 - were victims of Allied air bombardments of Essen. The neighbouring burial sites contain the graves of prisoners of concentration camps and Russian Prisoners of War shot in mass murders on the last days before the entry of the US Army troops.The German soldiers who fell in World War I and World War II are interred in two burial sites.
Foreign citizens, forced labourers and prisoners of war found their final resting place in Section No. 23b, which is located far from the remaining war graves burial sections, in the north-eastern part of the cemetery, approximately 200 m from the main entrance. From the outbreak of World War II until the surrender of the German troops in the Ruhr Area, more than 300 forced labourers and prisoners of war from the countries of occupied Europe were buried here. The largest group were citizens of the USSR and Poland.
After the war, the Allied western countries exhumed the remains of most of their fellow countrymen in order to bury them in their homelands. In 1963, within the project to rearrange the Second World War graves burial sections, between ten and twenty graves, originally scattered over the whole cemetery, were moved to Section No. 23b. At least 4 of them were Polish graves. The section was changed into a Soviet memorial site, an Orthodox cross was put up and 26 gravestones were arranged in 4 rows. According to the available name list in possession of the Cemetery Board, 26 persons of Polish nationality rest here, including both identified and unidentified (Unbekannt) - 6 civilians and 2 prisoners of war.
Now, after the exhumations and the relocation of the remains to the victims’ countries of origin, Section No. 23b holds 108 double graves containing the remains of 210 victims of World War II from the Essen area. Only 34 persons are known by their surname and by other personal details such as the date and place of birth and death. 176 victims remain anonymous (Unbekannt). In the remaining war graves burial sections, i.e. in the burial section for victims of air raids and the section for concentration camp prisoners (marked on the cemetery plan as Nos. 2 and 3 respectively), lie (according to the name list), 14 Polish citizens. Photo No, 1 presents the situational plan of the burial sites for the victims of World War II - the dark blue colour marks the main entrance from Fulerumer Street; No. 1 Section 23 b - victims of forced labour and prisoners of war; No. 2 - Section for civilian victims of air bombardments on Essen; No. 3 - Section for concentration camp prisoners; No. 4 - Section for soldiers who fell in World War I and World War II.
Cemetery address: Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia
Fulerum, Fulerumer Str. 15B,
45149 Essen
GPS: 51.435022,6.965248
Cemetery administration: Südwestfriedhof (Städtisch),
www.essen.de/rathaus/aemter/ordner_67/krematorium/friedhoefe/friedhoefe_detailseite_essen_de_169243.de.html,
bernhard.melsa@gge.essen.de,
Fulerumer Straße 15b, 45149 Essen,
+49 201 716297
