The German war cemetery Bordj Cedria is located around 25 kilometers east of the capital Tunis. More than 8,500 German soldiers who lost their lives in combat or as prisoners of war during the Tunisian campaign in the Second World War are buried there.
Description of the cemetery
The war cemetery is located on the Keddel foothills, on an advanced shoulder of a slope. Adapted to the slope are six staggered individual courtyards, where the remains of the dead are buried in ossuaries (ossuaries).
A stone in the central memorial courtyard bears the inscription in Arabic, German and French: "In this cemetery rest 8,562 German soldiers from 1939 to 1945". It also commemorates 104 soldiers whose graves could not be found in Tunisia. A covered staircase leads to a visitors' room.
Occupancy
In September 1940, Italian troops launched an attack on Egypt, which was under British rule. The offensive failed, so that Germany, allied with Italy, began the - initially successful - "African campaign" in February 1941.
Growing difficulties arose due to the increasingly long supply routes, which did not allow sufficient supplies to reach the German troops. This and the clear numerical superiority of the British, supported by the USA, ultimately led to the surrender of the German-Italian units near Tunis on May 13, 1943.
The soldiers of the Wehrmacht were buried in six provisional collective cemeteries in Nassen (Cap Bon), Bizerta, La Mornaghia (Mornag), El M'Dou, Mateur and Sfax. Many others rest in field graves scattered across the country.
The German-Tunisian War Graves Agreement came into force on March 28, 1966. After the cemetery at Bordj Cedria was established between 1973 and 1975, the war dead began to be reburied at the site on the north-western slope of the Keddel foothills. During the reburial, a large number of the approximately 2,000 unknown dead were identified. The war cemetery was opened to the public on September 28, 1977.
Special feature
One side of the visitor room is decorated with colorful glazed tiles. They were fired in Nabeul, an old Tunisian pottery town. The tiles show the outline of Tunisia and the original burial sites of the war dead who were transferred to Bordj Cedria.
The inscription is engraved: "This war cemetery was built between 1973 and 1975. The German soldiers originally buried in Bizerta, El M Dou, La Mornaghia, Mateur, Nassen and Sfax found their final resting place here".
