The Sennefriedhof Cemetery in Bielefeld is one of the largest forest cemeteries in Germany. Spreading over an area of more than 100 hectares, it contains various burial sites for approximately 1,350 victims of World War II, 312 of whom were foreign citizens. The Polish citizens are mostly buried in the honorary cemetery for foreign victims of World War II (the middle part of the cemetery). Initially, the site housed the graves of more than 600 persons. However, in the 1960s, some of the remains were exhumed and moved to the Soviet cemetery, some other remains were moved to the Sennelager cemetery, and yet some other - to their countries of origin. Nowadays, this burial site contains the graves of 312 war victims, most of whom were Soviets, Yugoslavs and Poles. The victims are commemorated by numerous gravestones and concrete slabs with the names of, above all, Polish, Soviet and Ukrainian citizens inscribed upon them. The deceased were forced labourers, prisoners, prisoners of war and so-called DPs (displaced persons).
In the north-eastern part of the cemetery, there is a burial site for victims of air bombardments in which 484, mostly German, victims are interred. Their graves are marked by stone crosses. The site also holds several graves of foreign citizens, at least 3 being Polish citizens. The state of preservation of the burial sites and the graves in the Sennefriedhof Cemetery in Bielefeld is good (state from 2018).
Cemetery address: Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia
Brackweder Str. 80
33647 Bielefeld
GPS: 51.979584,8.530538
Cemetery administration: Umweltbetrieb der Stadt Bielefeld Abteilung Planung und Unterhaltung Friedhöfe,
www.umweltbetrieb-bielefeld.de,
umweltbetrieb@bielefeld.de,
Brackweder Straße 80, 33649 Bielefeld,
+49 521 51-5562
