Zeithain Memorial Grove
Please note: This page was machine-translated. If anything is unclear, the German version is authoritative.
The memorial commemorates the victims of crimes committed by the Wehrmacht in the Zeithain prisoner-of-war camp between 1941 and 1945.
On the orders of the Wehrmacht High Command, the Zeithain prisoner-of-war camp was established in April 1941 on the Zeithain military training area, directly adjacent to Jacobsthal railway station. After the attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, it was initially intended exclusively for the accommodation of Soviet prisoners and, together with the neighboring Stalag IV B in Mühlberg, served as the central reception and distribution camp in Saxony.
After registration, the prisoners were distributed to other camps and their work details. The largest employers in the region were the Riesa and Gröditz steelworks of Mitteldeutsche-Stahlwerke AG, the Wehrmacht, and the Reichsbahn. In the course of the war, prisoners of other nationalities also arrived at the camp.
Although the Soviet prisoners of war were intended for labor from the outset, the Wehrmacht did not provide them with adequate supplies. As a result of completely inadequate food and accommodation, catastrophic hygienic conditions, and poor medical care, tens of thousands of prisoners lost their lives.
At the end of July 1941, the first of four cemeteries for deceased Soviet prisoners of war was established on the site of what is now the Zeithain memorial grove. It was given the name ""Russenfriedhof Zeithain“ (Zeithain Russian Cemetery). All the dead from the camp and the nearby Waldlager prisoner-of-war reserve hospital in what is now the Neudorf district were buried here until December 16, 1941. The dead were transported to the cemetery by truck or horse-drawn cart.
On April 23, 1945, the Red Army liberated the camp. Between 1948 and 1949, the Zeithain Memorial Grove was created on the orders of the Soviet Military Administration in Saxony, whereby the site largely lost its character as a cemetery. From then on, the memorial grove served as a symbol of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany and commemorated the heroes in the fight against fascism. The names of the dead were deliberately not mentioned on the graves.
It was not until the end of 2013 that 20 plaques with over 5,068 names and the corresponding dates of birth and death of the Red Army soldiers buried in this cemetery were erected in the memorial grove.
The permanent exhibition tells the story of the camp through individual fates and historical film and photo recordings. In addition to the document house, part of the exhibition is located in the Zeithain memorial grove in a former accommodation barrack made of prefabricated wooden components from the prisoner-of-war camp.
The document house also houses the offices of the memorial site's employees. Guided tours can be booked in advance.
Opening hours:
Monday to Thursday: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Friday: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Weekends/holidays: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Email: ehrenhain.zeithain(at)stsg.smwk.sachsen.de
Internet: www.ehrenhain-zeithain.de
Telephone: 03525 - 760392