The Lerbeck Evangelical Cemetery in Porta Westfalica contains 2 burial sites for Polish victims of World War II. Not far from the cemetery chapel, on the right side, is a mass grave in which the victims of the Lerbeck sub-camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp are interred. Various accounts mention 55 individuals buried in this cemetery. The post-war exhumations revealed a mass grave of 34 victims. Some of them were exhumed and moved to their countries of origin. The remains of the victims from Poland were left in the cemetery, and the grave was marked by an erratic boulder bearing this inscription: ‘Here lie the unknown victims of the concentration camp, 1939-1945.’ There is no personal data about the victims.
To the right of the main alley is a grave of 5 civilian forced labourers. The grave is marked by five stone slabs with the victims’ names inscribed upon them. Today, however, they are quite illegible. Most probably, three persons out of those buried here were Polish citizens.
Cemetery address: Porta Westfalica, North Rhine-Westphalia
Lerbeck, Kirchweg
32457 Porta Westfalica
GPS: 52.25197,8.94229
Cemetery administration: Evangelischer Kirchenkreis Minden,
www.kkminden.de,
Haus der Kirche, Rosentalstr. 6, 32423 Minden,
