Bergen - Lohheide (Hörsten), Kriegsgefangenenfriedhof

The first transports from the Soviet Union arrived in Bergen-Belsen in July 1941; by the beginning of November, around 21,000 Soviet prisoners of war had been brought to the main camp. The attached military hospital was housed in the wooden barracks of the former army new-build camp. Massive new accommodation was to be built in the main camp, but progress was slow. As a result, the prisoners vegetated in self-built earth caves, leaf huts or makeshift tents until well into the fall. The completely inadequate rations contributed to emaciation and mass illnesses. Dysentery was already rampant in the camp from August onwards, and almost 10,000 prisoners were taken to the 150 or so labor detachments of Stalag XI C (311) Bergen-Belsen in the summer and autumn of 1941. At least 500 prisoners of war were selected by a Gestapo task force and murdered in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. This murder program was primarily aimed at the Jews and political functionaries among the prisoners of war. After the outbreak of typhus, the camp was quarantined in November 1941. Thousands of sick people and those unfit for work were brought in from the labor detachments of the Bergen-Belsen, Fallingbostel and Oerbke Stalags. By the spring of 1942, around 14,000 Soviet prisoners of war had died in Bergen-Belsen as a result of the deadly living conditions in the camp and at work. The dead were initially buried in individual graves and from October 1941 in mass graves in the camp cemetery, which was about 600 m away. From summer 1942, there were only a few prisoners left in the camp outside the military hospital. When the SS took over the southern part of the camp in June 1943, Stalag XI C (311) was dissolved. However, the military hospital with its 1200 beds continued to exist as a branch camp of the main camp XI B Fallingbostel. Sick prisoners of war from the labor detachments in the region were brought there. A large number of people continued to die here. In January 1945, the prisoner of war camp was finally abandoned by the Wehrmacht. The site was then handed over to the SS. In the meantime, over 19,500 Soviet prisoners of war were buried in the camp cemetery. photos: Volker Fleig 2012