How about discovering a place of peace amidst Cologne’s vibrant life? This is the Westfriedhof. It is one of the city’s largest cemeteries. The Westfriedhof spans 52 hectares. It offers a green space for remembrance and reflection.
The Westfriedhof is more than just a burial ground. It is a testament to Cologne’s history. It reflects the city’s resilience through war and tyranny.
Here at the Westfriedhof, we find approximately 3800 war graves. They mark one of Cologne’s most significant memorials. These graves commemorate war victims and victims of National Socialism. Most buried here died in the Cologne area between 1939 and 1945. The war grave sites were established from 1945 into the 1960s.
These grounds hold different burial sites. There is a site for German civilians and military war victims. Another is for German and foreign victims of National Socialism. A separate area exists for foreign prisoners of war. These graves are protected and maintained with public funds. This is according to the Law on the preservation of graves. This law protects victims of war and tyranny. It was first passed in 1952 and updated in 1965.
Interestingly, some graves are no longer preserved. These include about 200 German soldiers and air raid victims. Over 800 graves of German and foreign NS victims also went unpreserved. They were not considered when the war graves list was created. This includes victims executed in Klingelpütz Prison. It also includes displaced persons. These were foreign forced laborers, prisoners of war and concentration camp inmates freed in 1945.
From June 1940 until the Americans arrived on March 6, 1945, over 1500 German civilians were buried here. They were victims of air raids. The major air raids on Cologne started May 31, 1942. This was with the 1000 bomber raid. The NS regime faced logistical challenges. Prisoners from Buchenwald concentration camp were forced to work. They worked alongside German troops. They rescued those trapped and buried the dead quickly.
In 1943, the regime launched a propaganda campaign. It aimed to boost morale. Civilian war victims were then called “the fallen”. This mirrored the term for German soldiers. Commemorations were staged. The “front” and the “home front” were to unite. Dying in an air raid became “self-sacrifice” for the Fatherland. This strengthened cohesion within the “national community”. After the war, the complex was completed. It followed the style of war grave sites from the 1920s. The Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge introduced this style. The symmetrical complex leads to a high cross. It symbolizes Christian comfort. The gravestones resemble the Eiserne Kreuz. This was a medal for bravery.
Ossip Zadkine’s sculpture stands before the burial site. Zadkine was an artist and sculptor. He created “The Prisoners” in New York in 1943. This reflected the suffering of the French under German occupation.
The Westfriedhof also has a “Foreigners’ Graveyard”. This plot was used from February 1943. Before then, foreign civilian workers were buried with the German dead. The Cologne State Police Department likely ordered this separation. The Rhineland Regional Employment Office also played a role. They operated an “invalids’ camp” in Cologne-Gremberg. The deceased from this camp were buried here.
During the NS era, the site had two sections. One was a “Slavic Site” for forced laborers from Poland and the Soviet Union. Next to it was an area for Western Europeans. This segregation reflected the National Socialists’ racist views.
Kurt Lehmann’s sculpture “Mother with Dead Son” stands here. It evokes the suffering of the Virgin Mary. Heribert Calleen’s sculpture represents “inextinguishable human free will”. It depicts three young men who survived a fiery furnace.
From 1943, the “Foreigners’ Graveyard” also held those executed by NS courts. From 1944, bodies murdered by the Gestapo were buried anonymously here.
In 1946, the British military government planned a “grove of honor”. Memorials were erected by Polish and Soviet representatives.
Since the 1950s, graves have been relocated and new memorials added. Four separate burial sites were created. The complex was finished in 1968. The inscriptions on the gravestones can be confusing.
One site is for victims of various nationalities. Another is for victims of the Gestapo. A third site holds victims of NS euthanasia. The last is for Polish and Soviet forced laborers and their children.
Philomena Franz, a Romani Holocaust survivor, is also buried here.
The Westfriedhof stands as a place of memory. It honors those who suffered. It reminds us of Cologne’s past.