Köln Westfriedhof

Cemetery description

The cemeteries in Cologne are the final resting places for approximately 15,000 victims of World War II and Nazi persecution. More than 3,000 were foreign citizens, including 260 persons who, on the basis of the cemetery lists and documentation, have been identified as Polish citizens.
The National Socialism Documentation Centre of the City of Cologne - www.museenkoeln.de/ns-dokumentationszentrum/default.aspx?s=2484 - is currently working on a project to create a database containing information about the war graves that can be found in the city. In cooperation with the Centre, the Foundation for ‘Polish-German Reconciliation’ has managed to gather a great amount of information about the graves of Polish citizens.
The largest war graves cemeteries in Cologne are located in the Western Cemetery (Westfriedhof). The Polish citizens are buried in the burial site for victims of Nazism and in the burial site for Polish and Soviet soldiers and Prisoners of War.
The central memorial site commemorating victims of World War II is located in the middle of the western part of the cemetery. The graves hold the last remains of the victims of the Gestapo, forced labourers and prisoners from abroad. At the entrance to this burial site is a stonewall with the following inscription: ‘In memory of the victims of violence and the war, 1939-1945.’ Inside the site there are two memorial plaques that state the following: ‘Here lie, as the victims of the Gestapo, more than 780 citizens of different nationalities,’ and: ‘ Here lie 218 citizens of various nationalities - the victims of violence and the war.’
To the north of the largest burial site for the war victims, on the left of the war graves burial section holding the graves of Soviet soldiers and prisoners of war, there is a grave-site of Polish soldiers and prisoners of war. This is marked by a stone cross with a large vertical memorial slab and a smaller slab, which lies horizontally. Both slabs bear the list of the victims’ names and this information in Polish: ‘Here lie Polish soldiers.”

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