There is no one to look after the graves of Wehrmacht soldiers in Rzhev: Germany has withdrawn itself

80 years ago, on March 3, 1943, Rzhev was liberated from the Nazi invaders by the troops of the Red Army. The occupation of the city lasted 17 months. Until 1941, 56,000 people lived in Rzhev, and after its liberation, only 360 survived. The city was destroyed to the ground. The Battle of Rzhev has become one of the bloodiest in the history of mankind. There were fierce battles in Rzhev itself and around it, and mass graves remained everywhere, often common, since the losses on both sides were terrible, the corpses of Soviet and German soldiers lay mixed up, and there was no time to sort it out. Then more than two million of our compatriots and eight hundred thousand Wehrmacht soldiers died. Rzhev still stands on thousands of unmarked graves. But even after eighty years, many of the dead are still not buried: the remains of the German military lie in boxes.

Rzhev is not the only place on the map of Russia where there is a burial place of German soldiers. In the Leningrad, Volgograd and Murmansk regions, in the Smolensk region, such cemeteries are equipped. In total, there are about 80 of them on the territory of the former Soviet Union. But Rzhev turned out to be special.

In 1992, an interstate agreement between Russia and Germany was concluded on the joint care of military graves in both countries. Two organizations have been created. “German People’s Union” and “War Memorials”.

“We are not the Baltic States and Poland”, but “there is no place for burials anymore”

No one knows exactly how many Soviet and German soldiers still remain on the battlefields. Their relatives do not know where to bring flowers. Rzhev still remembers both the occupation and the funeral. However, the townspeople understand that one cannot live only in the past. Previously, relatives of the buried people traveled to us in whole tours, and not only in Rzhev, but all over the country: from one cemetery to another. From February 24, 2022, all trips to Germany by residents of Rzhev and German relatives to Russia have ceased. Now no contact with the Germans.

– Nobody cleans the German cemetery from snow. It was cared for by a company hired by the German People’s Union for the Care of War Graves (NUG). They are not in Rzhev, they are based in St. Petersburg, – the director of the Rzhev Patriotic Center explained to MK Sergey Petukhov. – Almost 3 hectares have been allocated for the burial of the remains of Wehrmacht soldiers under the German prefabricated cemetery. This area was designed for 2,000 burials, and today more than 43,000 remains were buried on it. Now there is no free place for burial there. For the past year and a half, the People’s Union of Germany has been deciding the issue of allocating an additional site. Whether he will be singled out is unknown.

“We are not the Baltic States and Poland, we are Russia – we have adequate people,” continues Petukhov. – No one imposes any obstacles on the NSG, neither the administration nor the residents. And these two cemeteries should not be compared. Each one is different. In our mass graves, both named and nameless remains are buried in one place. There are plates with names. In German, they are also buried in a common grave, but they have granite slabs with names, dates of birth and death. Nobody touches them. Since 2002, not a single fact of vandalism.

According to the director of the Rzhev Patriotic Center, there have never been any conflicts around the German cemetery in Rzhev. The remains of German soldiers continue to be searched, exhumed and taken to a storage facility that the NSG rents for them. They are stored there to this day. The issue of burial in a prefabricated military cemetery has not yet been resolved. It’s overflowing. There are no more burial places.

The memorial complex on the outskirts of Rzhev, which opened almost 20 years ago (in 2002), includes a Soviet memorial and a German military cemetery. Its discovery in those years caused a mixed reaction: originally intended as a sign of reconciliation over the graves, it almost became a bargaining chip in the games of politicians.

Initially, in many respects, in order to prevent a scandal, the German side refused burials, confining itself to a Catholic memorial cross. Later, the burial of the remains of German soldiers who died during the Great Patriotic War in the Battle of Rzhev did begin. Above the German graves, stone slabs are installed with the names of the buried soldiers, the dates of their birth and death.

An interesting fact: visiting tourists and residents of Rzhev visit both the Soviet and German cemeteries. According to Russian tradition, flowers are laid at the mass graves of Soviet soldiers. Flowers are also left at the German cemetery – but only at the foot of the cross. Be that as it may, the complex fulfills its main purpose: reconciliation over the graves is possible.

“What is done is done”

In accordance with the agreement between the governments of Russia and Germany of December 16, 1992 on the care of war graves in their territories, in 1997 the city Duma of Rzhev allocated a plot of land of 2.85 hectares to the Association of International Military Memorial Cooperation “War Memorials” on the very outskirts of the city.

With funds raised in Germany, the construction of a cemetery began – simple, no frills: a gate, a Catholic cross, a path of reddish Karelian stone, plots with burials. In July 1999, the head of Rzhev, Alexander Kharchenko, issued a decree allocating the same plot of 2.85 hectares “for the design and construction of a cemetery for German soldiers” for a three-year lease.

In the fall of 2000, the NSG carried out the exhumation of 907 corpses of German soldiers in the Rzhev region. The remains of 240 people were then buried in an unfinished cemetery. The ashes of one of them were transported to Germany, the remains of the others were placed in a specially equipped storage room. At the same time, among the veterans of the war and the inhabitants of Rzhev, the idea was born to create a memorial to the fallen Soviet soldiers here and plant a park of reconciliation between our peoples. The German side expressed its readiness to finance the arrangement of the Russian memorial. Veterans of two once warring armies founded the park. But then politics got mixed up. And the burial of German soldiers on the already prepared field was suspended. The order of the former governor Vladimir Platov, who forbade the burial of Germans on the Rzhev land, did not last long, until the end of 2004. At that time, the remains of over 660 Wehrmacht soldiers were never interred. The NSG appealed to Governor Dmitry Zelenin with a request to cancel Platov’s decision.

The proposal of the former governor Vladimir Platov to move the burial from the city to the Rzhevsky district was absurd: the border between the city and the region runs a few tens of meters from the cemetery. By the way, even the design work on the burial of our soldiers began only thanks to funds received from Germany. The Kremlin wall with a list of all the military formations that fought on the Rzhev land, a chapel in the center of the cemetery – our burial looks much more solemn than the German one.

Passions around the Rzhevsky cemetery have reached the highest state level. In December 2000, then Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov met in Germany with Karl-Wilhelm Lange, chairman of the NSG. Thus, the prospect was outlined – in honor of the 60th anniversary of the end of the war, to carry out the burial of German soldiers in Rzhev. At that time, this became a sign of real reconciliation: Germany’s repentance was accepted, the war was over. In all senses.

In order to resolve the Rzhev conflict, the former German ambassador to Russia, Ernst-Jörg von Studnitz, came to the city twice. Here he met with both opponents and supporters of laying the cemetery. It is known that at that time Vladimir Putin personally agreed with Gerhard Schroeder not to touch the cemetery: what’s done is done. Former Ambassador to Germany. H.-F. von Pletz believed that the already created Park of Reconciliation and Accord, which includes a German burial and a memorial to Soviet soldiers, was more than a brilliant solution.

First person

The theme of the German cemetery next to the Soviet one almost 20 years ago became the leitmotif of the meeting of “MK” with the head of the city of Rzhev Alexandra Kharchenko. As long as he had powers, the mayor gave consent to the burial of the German remains. But once this was prevented by the changed Law on Land, and the mayor needed permission from the regional authorities for such liberties. Former governor Platov even sent a police squad to prevent Kharchenko from working. In 2004, everything changed, the regional administration considered that it was necessary to meet the German side halfway and take the first step by burying the remains that had already been found. All this was done as a sign of reconciliation. Then Alexander Kharchenko relied on the world situation: the Americans, in his words, publicly forgave the Japanese for the destruction of Pearl Harbor. The Japanese people publicly forgave the Americans for dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And the city of Rzhev, according to its former mayor, can and should become a symbol of reconciliation between Russia and Germany.

– The Germans turned to us with a request to allow and kneel before their dead. There are no troops in Germany now. If the Germans stop caring for the graves of Soviet soldiers – who will be pleased? – Asked in an interview with MK back in November 2004, the head of Rzhev, Alexander Kharchenko (he was the mayor of Rzhev for 18 years, from 1991 to 2009). “That is why, at the request of the War Memorials organization, we allocated 2.8 hectares of land on the outskirts of Rzhev. The resolution was approved by the City Council. There was a leveled field enclosed by a fence. Catholic cross, that’s all, no memorial.

– What then is the uniqueness of the Rzhev project for the burial of German soldiers?

– This project is unique in itself, because starting with the construction of the Friendship Alley, we created the Peace Park. Its peculiarity is that for the first time the issue of the burial of Soviet and German soldiers was solved in a comprehensive manner, Kharchenko explains. – All of us, residents of the city, believe that insufficient attention has been paid to the Battle of Rzhev in Russia so far. There were terrible losses in these places. Even punctual Germans cannot give exact data about their dead here. As many funerals came to Germany from the battlefields near Rzhev as from Stalingrad.

– Who initiated the project?

— German veterans. When they came to our city, they met with Soviet veterans. They sat opposite each other. After a glass of vodka, they began to jump. At first I thought they were fighting each other. It turns out that they recalled how they shot at each other. They were young during the war, 17-20 years old. And at the meeting they fraternized. Because everyone still remembers youth, no matter what.

– Who invested in the construction of the Russian-German complex?

– The German cemetery is completely equipped with the money of the German country. They invested more than 7 million rubles. The Soviet cemetery cost the German 2 times more than his own. Have you seen that the German cemetery is much more ascetic than ours? They build similar burials all over Europe. We treat this issue, otherwise we should have a cathedral burial, which is based on the Russian tradition.

– The German and Russian cemetery is separated by a road. What does she symbolize?

“It’s a road between two cemeteries, like a front line. Behind ours is a copy of a part of the Kremlin wall – a symbol of the capital. The soldiers were dying, but did not let the Nazis to Moscow. The Germans agreed with this idea, which is why they financed its implementation,” concluded the former mayor of Rzhev.

However, this is all in the past now. Local residents sadly remember the old days. “People’s diplomacy was very well developed here,” says the Rzhevian, who was ashamed to introduce himself. Our people went to Germany, German children came here, lived in Rzhev families. Everything came to naught. Before, we had very well established international relations. German children came to Rzhev, lived in the country camp “Zarnitsa”.

Statistics:

110 000 soldiers and officers of the Red Army were buried on the territory of Rzhev and the Rzhev region in 43 mass graves. More than half of them are unnamed;

23 000 Red Army soldiers were reburied, 900 of them were identified;

43 000 reburied soldier of the Wehrmacht.

Source: Rzhev Military Glory Museum data.