The Važec German war cemetery is located in northern central Slovakia at the foot of the Tatra National Park (High Tatras). The overall picture is characterized by the view of Mount Kriváň, the "holy mountain" of the Slovaks, which is an unofficial national symbol of Slovakia. With a total of 8,919 dead, it is the largest collective cemetery in the Slovak Republic.
History
It is estimated that 178,000 people lost their lives in the Second World War in the former Czechoslovakia; 114,000 of these war dead are registered by name. The known grave sites are located in around 5,200 places; there are graves with more than 50 dead in 240 places. Approximately 35,000 war dead are believed to have died on the territory of today's Slovak Republic. The Volksbund's work began in 1990 in the east of what was then Czechoslovakia. The first collective cemetery was inaugurated in Zborov in 1992. humenné and Prešov followed in 1994. The Hunkovce war cemetery was completed in 1995, the one in Važec - the largest in Slovakia - in 1998, and the cemetery in Bratislava was inaugurated in 2000. This was followed by the restoration and consolidation of cemeteries from the First World War. Today, around 16,000 German soldiers are buried in six Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. cemeteries in what is now the Slovak Republic
The legal basis for the work of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. was initially the German-Czechoslovak Neighborhood Treaty of February 27, 1992. On March 2, 1999, the Federal Republic of Germany and the Slovak Republic concluded a war graves agreement, which came into force on August 12, 2000.
In the search for a suitable cemetery site for the German war dead in western and central Slovakia, Važec was chosen after a corresponding construction project in Liptovský Mikuláš could not be realized. With an area of around 2.5 hectares, the cemetery is the largest German war cemetery in the Slovak Republic and currently offers space for the burial of 8,919 dead in individual and comrades' graves. Additional burial areas are also available. Construction work lasted from fall 1997 to October 1998 and the cemetery was inaugurated on October 11, 1998.
Description of the cemetery
The cemetery is located on the edge of the Tatra National Park. A small access road leads to the parking lot and the covered entrance building, which is shaped like the nearby mountain peaks. It is a so-called "Vstup" in typical local timber construction. The vstup and the cemetery enclosure are made of identical materials: Wood and local slate stone.
In the entrance area of the cemetery there is a granite block with an engraved orientation plan. A flap integrated into the granite block contains the name and visitor book. The main path leads visitors to the memorial square with a large, traditionally designed oak high cross. A small lake collects the surface water from the cemetery, which is located on a slope, and drains it away via a stone channel. A combination of natural stone wall, wooden fence and planting surrounds the site and integrates it into the landscape. The eight cemeteries are accessed via a circular path; granite crosses on each side bear four names and dates of those buried here. In front of each cemetery are pedestal stones with bronze plaques that immortalize the names of the dead who rest among the unknown. The names of the war dead who could no longer be recovered in the reburial area are recorded on the memorial square in two open metal name books resting on natural stone plinths.
Special feature
The Važec war cemetery was awarded the Slovakian Architecture Prize in 1999.
