At the Golm war cemetery on the island of Usedom, the culture of remembrance was fundamentally revised after German reunification in 1990. in 2005, the German War Graves Commission opened the Golm Youth Meeting and Education Center.
Cemetery description
The German war cemetery "Auf dem Golm" in Garz is located on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom, directly on the border with Poland. It is the largest site in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. At 69 meters, the Golm is the highest elevation on Usedom. Little was done to the cemetery until reunification. It was not until 1995 that the cemetery was redesigned on the initiative of the Golm Memorial Interest Group, which was founded in 1992. Since then, a wooden cross at the entrance to the cemetery has served as a reminder of reconciliation across graves and borders within sight of the Polish border. At the highest point of the cemetery is a memorial in the form of a circular concrete structure designed by the Rostock sculptor Wolfgang Eckardt. The work bears the inscription "That never again a mother weeps for her son". The statue "The freezing woman in the soldier's coat", created by Bansin sculptor Rudolf Leptien, has stood on the site since 1984.
Occupancy
Several thousand people are buried on the Golm, including many bombing victims from Swinoujscie, now in Poland. As early as 1944, it served as a cemetery for soldiers who had died in the southern Baltic region and in the military hospitals of Swinemünde under the name Swinemünde-Golm Cemetery of Honor.
History
At the beginning of March 1945, refugees and soldiers gathered in Świnoujście: Kilometre-long treks were waiting for the crossing. Several fully occupied refugee ships lay in the harbor. Overcrowded hospital and refugee trains were waiting to depart from the train station. At this time, the town was an important Wehrmacht and U-boat fleet base. On March 12, 1945, 661 American bombers attacked the town. According to recent research, between 4,500 and 6,000 people died that day during the midday hours, including many foreign forced labourers. In the first few years after the end of the Second World War, only individual relatives looked after the graves. From 1950 onwards, the Evangelical Church, in constant conflict with GDR state authorities, tried in vain to find a permanent solution for the cemetery, which was already partially overgrown at the time. In the summer of 1969, the Wolgast district council had all the grave markers removed.
On March 1, 2000, the cemetery was taken over by the Volksbund. Every year on March 12 and on Remembrance Day, it commemorates the dead of the 1945 bombing raid on the Golm. Since 2001, there has been a permanent exhibition in the information building of the war cemetery.
Special feature
On March 12, 2005, the Volksbund opened the Golm International Youth Meeting and Education Center (JBS) in the fishing village of Kamminke. The peace education programs offered by the JBS are primarily aimed at schools and international youth encounters. Clubs, associations and institutions such as churches, the German Armed Forces, the Federal Police and universities also use the meeting place as part of their youth and adult education programs. The Volksbund maintains further youth meeting and educational centers in Ysselsteyn (Netherlands), Lommel (Belgium) and Niederbronn-Les-Bains (France).
