Cemetery Section for Nazi Victims in Karlsruhe

Picture and text by Mark R. Hatlie

This picture was taken on 25 March, 2006 in the main cemetery at Karlsruhe. This marker is near the center of the cemetery. It is rather cryptic in that it doesn't reveal who is buried there. This section is not spatially connected to the soldiers' graves, the air raid dead, nor the foreign war victims.

	It is just a lawn with a stone marker, a statue, a tree and a bench.
	The marker reads, "Thou shalt not kill / 1933-1945" and, along the bottom, "Here lie 289 victims of injustice". The dates 1933-1945 make it clear that the deaths had something to do with Naziism, not just the war. We do not know if they were Jews, Soviet POWs, deserters, other people from a concentration camp or death march, resisters, etc.
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	Near the tree at the back there are two stone slabs without any markings on them. Someone had recently placed flowers there.