Section of Cemetery for Foreign War Dead

Picture and text by Mark R. Hatlie

This picture was taken on 25 March, 2006 in the main cemetery in Karlsruhe. This section rather hidden from view and hard to find. It is close to the section for the air raid dead, but even more hidden. It is one more hedgerow further on, on the very edge of this huge cemetery. And once there, the graves themselves are far back from the walkway.

We can safely assume that many if not most of these were forced laborers brought to the Karlsruhe area from Eastern Europe. They probably died of privation or mistreatment. But it is not unthinkable that they might have put those killed in Allied air raids here separate from the German killed.

	These graves are far back from the walkway in their own section.
	The rows of stones are very much like many German military cemeteries.
	The cross reads, "Here lie war victims of various countries".
	Some stones have one name, others two. They are vitually all Slavic (Polish and Russian as best as I could judge).
	.
	Men and women of various ages. Most died in 1944-1945, but some even in 1946.
	a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl