Harburg New Cemetery

The Harburg New Cemetery opened in 1892. It has war graves for soldiers from the First and Second World Wars as well as graves for bombing victims and victims of Nazi tyranny.

In 1940, a burial ground with pillow grave markers for 1,707 residents of Harburg who died in the bombing during World War II was created in the western section of the cemetery. Forced labourers and prisoners of war had to dig these graves and bury the victims.

In the central section of the New Cemetery is a burial ground for 476 victims of Nazi tyranny from various countries (Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Spain). 243 of these victims are known by name. Their names are engraved in twelve simple flat grave markers. A larger memorial plaque lists the countries from which they came. These people were ‘foreign workers’ as well as prisoners of the Neuengamme concentration camp. They had been forced to work at the port of Hamburg for companies such as Deutsche Werft on Reiherstieg, the Schindler petroleum factory and the Wilhelmsburg Eurotank oil refinery, and they died in bombing attacks there because they were not allowed to enter the air-raid shelters.

In the north-western section of the New Cemetery on Beerentalweg is another burial ground for victims of Nazi tyranny. Presumably 16 Polish soldiers who took part in the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 are buried here. They were registered as prisoners of war in Stalag (Stammlager; POW camp) X B Sandbostel and from there were transported to Hamburg. These men died on 22 March 1945 in a bombing attack. Another, Czesław Olczyk, was sent to the Stalag X B military hospital, where he died a few days later. Although he was buried in the camp cemetery in Sandbostel, his name can also be read on the monument in Hamburg-Harburg.

Students from the Harburg Comprehensive School worked with the German War Graves Commission to install an information panel at the memorial in German and Polish. An hour of remembrance is held here each year on 1 August, the anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising.