The city of Kaunas is located in the southern part of the Baltic Republic of Lithuania. The Kaunas collective cemetery is the central war cemetery for all German soldiers who died in the central parts of Lithuania. The cemetery is located in the Aukštieji Šanèiai (Upper Hill) district, southeast of the city center, on Aðmenos gatvë. From Vilnius (Wilna), take the highway to the Kaunas-Zentrum exit. The facility was opened to the public on September 9, 2000.
Cemetery description
The Wehrmacht had the German military cemetery in Kaunas established in 1942 and further expanded during the Second World War. The collective cemetery eventually covered an area of two hectares and was occupied by around 1,500 dead. In the post-war period, the site was left untended and soon lost its visible features above ground. In 1995 and 1996, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. (German War Graves Commission) surveyed the area and determined the size of the cemetery and the location of the grave blocks. The completion of the project planning in 1998 was followed by the restoration of the original cemetery and the creation of new burial areas. Two years later, in August 2000, the work was completed. By 2009, the Volksbund's reburial service had buried more than 5,000 war dead in the extended areas. Further additional burials followed. A memorial square with a high cross made of natural stone forms the central point of the cemetery. The names and dates of the soldiers buried in Kaunas during the war are listed on inscription steles. Blocks 4 to 8 - behind the memorial square - and blocks 2 and 3 - to the right and left of the square - are occupied by the war dead buried by the War Graves Commission. The same applies to blocks 9 and 10 in the entrance area of the cemetery, where granite grave crosses and inscribed plaques immortalize the names of the buried dead. In front of Block 8, there are twelve pillar stones bearing the names of the soldiers who died in captivity in Kaunas. The name book of the cemetery can be viewed in the cemetery administration building on weekdays from 9.00 am to 4.00 pm. A book for entries by visitors is also available there.
History
Lithuania only became a sovereign state after the end of the First World War. The so-called Hitler-Stalin Pact concluded in 1939 incorporated Lithuania into the Soviet sphere of interest. As a result, the country effectively became part of the Soviet Union in 1940. in 1941, after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the German "Wehrmacht" occupied Lithuania. Soviet troops recaptured the country in the summer of 1944. Lithuania became a Soviet republic. The initial resistance of armed partisan groups against Soviet rule soon collapsed. In Kaunas, thousands of people fell victim to the atrocities of the National Socialists.
Special feature
In 1942, the "Wehrmacht" chose an area near a Lithuanian war cemetery with dead from the battles of 1918/19 to build the German military cemetery in Kaunas. In the years following the end of the Second World War, a memorial complex for the Soviet war dead from the battles around Kaunas was built next to the German cemetery.
