Georgian Colonel Solomon Zaldastanishvili, who died during the Second World War, is buried at the Brașov war cemetery. After the attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, he joined the German side because he hoped for the collapse of the Soviet Union and thus the independence of Georgia.
Cemetery description
Brașov (German: Kronstadt) is a large city in Burzenland in south-eastern Transylvania. A wall was built around the cemetery as early as 1918. 754 soldiers are buried there. A memorial stone and two gravestones were erected for the Romanian war dead in 1999. Other German soldiers who lost their lives in the Second World War are buried in St. Bartholomew's Cemetery, where wooden crosses commemorate them.
Burial
Romania initially remained neutral during the First World War. in 1916, it joined the Entente and declared war on Austria-Hungary. This was immediately followed by the German declaration of war on Romania.
As a result of the battles for the city in 1916, several war cemeteries were established. The "Cemetery of the Heroes of the First and Second World Wars" ("Cimitirul Eroilor din Primul şi cel de-Al Doilea Război Mondial") on the "Schützenwiese" is the largest in the city. There are 596 war dead from the First World War and 158 from the Second World War buried there.
Originally, 900 soldiers were buried there, including 360 Germans. Many had died of their injuries in the Kronstadt military hospital during the First World War. The number of graves was later reduced due to reburials.
During the Second World War, Romania felt threatened by the Soviet Union and therefore drew closer to Germany in 1940, which sent a military mission. in 1944, the country broke off diplomatic relations with Germany and issued a declaration of war. An armistice with the Soviet Union followed in September 1944, after which Romanian soldiers fought with the Red Army against Germany.
History
Soon after the fall of the Iron Curtain - from 1999 - the Volksbund organized work camps for young people and work assignments for German soldiers in Romania, who volunteered to carry out repair and maintenance work on war cemeteries. The Romanian Ministry of Defense and the central and local authorities supported these activities. The Romanian military took part in the maintenance work, accommodated the groups at its bases and provided them with food.
Special features
Georgian Colonel Solomon Zaldastanishvili, who died during the Second World War, is buried at the Brașov war cemetery. After the attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, he joined the German side because he hoped for the collapse of the Soviet Union and thus Georgia's independence.
During the German offensive in the first few months, thousands of Red Army soldiers were taken prisoner of war - including many Georgians who were interned under the most adverse conditions. Zaldastanishvili campaigned for their release, but only managed to get the Wehrmacht administration to release 90 Georgian prisoners. In protest, the colonel went to the prison camp himself and stayed with his compatriots, even though he was a free man.
He paid for this with his life: Due to the adverse conditions, he fell seriously ill and died in the military hospital in Bucharest. The Wehrmacht burial service buried him in Brașov.
In his honor, the Georgian Embassy had a new gravestone erected in 2021 in the presence of the ambassador, which refers to Solomon Zaldastanishvili's commitment to Georgia's independence.
