Ysselsteyn German war cemetery

Ysselsteyn German war cemetery is a (First and) Second World War military war grave cemetery, located in the village of Ysselsteyn, in the municipality of Venray in Limburg, Netherlands, containing over 31,000 nazi-soldiers, SS-men and Dutch war criminals (traitors, collaborators, torturers, Jew-hunters and executioners) from around 25 countries. It is 32 km (20 mi) east of Eindhoven. Ysselsteyn is the largest Second World War German cemetery. It is the only German cemetery in the Netherlands as following the war German soldiers were reburied in the cemetery. The war dead include Germans, Dutch, Poles and Russians who fought on the side of the German military.

Ysselsteyn German war cemetery
German War Graves Commission
Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge.
Cemetery Ysselsteyn
Used for those deceased 1939–1945
Established1946
Location51°28′08″N 5°53′27″E
near 
Venray, Netherlands
Total burials31,598
Burials by nation
Germany and German Hiwis (many Hiwis from Georgia)
Burials by war
World War I (85); World War II (31,513);

World War I and II burials

Most burials are from combat deaths during German occupation duties in the Netherlands from May 1940 through May 1945 in the Netherlands. About 250 dead (Nazi-German Wehrmacht and SS as well as collaborating Dutch) were from killings by the Dutch resistance. About 3,000 of the burials are combat deaths during German occupation duties in the Netherlands, including razzias, deportations, illegal incarceration, Jew-hunting and other war crimes committed by the Nazi-regime from May 1940 through May 1945 in the Netherlands. About 250 dead (Nazi-German Wehrmacht) are from the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes and Hürtgenwald that were initially interred next to the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten.

In a circle near the entrance are 85 German soldiers who died in World War I and whose bodies ended up in the Netherlands often by floating down rivers, mainly the Meuse; the Netherlands remained neutral during the First World War.

There are over 5,000 unknown burials in the cemetery, marked incorrectly as "Ein Deutscher Soldat" (A German Soldier).

Architecture

The cemetery covers approximately 28 hectare or 70 acres. Almost all of the burials are in individual graves marked by a grey concrete cross that includes (where known) name, dates of birth and death and rank. A tall cross stands in the central memorial plaza. The roads extending right and left from the plaza contain a carillon and common graves.

A memorial stone honours Captain Johan Lodewijk Timmermans, a Dutchman who served as manager of the cemetery from 1948 to 1976 on behalf of the Dutch government, and whose ashes were scattered at the cemetery at his request after his death.

Ysselsteyn war cemetery in the Netherlands

Ysselsteyn is the largest German war cemetery in the world.[1] It is the only German war cemetery in the Netherlands as following the end of the Second World War all German fatalities were concentrated there. Since 1976 it has been administered by the German War Graves Commission (Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge). The designation is disputed as a number of the combat deaths buried here were non-Germans serving in the German armed forces, and that about 25 nationalities are buried here. Furthermore Dutch, Belgian, Russian, Czech, and many tens of so-called "Volksdeutsche" from Poland, the Danzig Free State, Luxemburg, Slovakija, and even Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan may also be buried here.

Next to the cemetery is Youth Meeting Centre Ysselsteyn, a youth camp and education centre.

War criminals

An estimated 2,500 graves are for SS-men, Waffen-SS as well as Allgemeine SS. Among them are some serious war criminals, such as the officer who sent Anne Frank, her relatives and friends to their deaths, Julius Dettmann. His name is not mentioned in any of the publications of the management of the site or the visitor's center.[2] Also buried here are an estimated 1,200 to 2,000 Dutch collaborators.

Protests

From the 1960s, protests were lodged against the Nazi dead and the cemetery. The protests were revived in 2013, when the Dutch Anti-Fascists' League AFVN.nl discovered that since the year 2000, the German ambassador had held yearly commemorations here, at first covertly.[3] The protests were lodged yearly also. In 2020, the AFVN and ant-fascist campaigner Arthur Graaff started a petition[4] against the visits of the ambassador. Dutch and German Jews joined the effort, as did Beate Klarsfeld and the management of the former Dachau concentration camp. The ambassador stopped his visits.

Neonazis

The cemetery gets irregular visits from Neonazis. In November 2020, a Belgian woman placed flowers on the grave of the first Dutch SS-volunteer Willem Heubel.[5]

Films

See also

References
  1. "Ysselsteyn Cemetery". German War Graves Commission. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
  2. https://www.afvn.nl/tag/ysselsteyn/
  3. https://www.timesofisrael.com/german-ambassador-to-netherlands-to-visit-graves-of-ss-soldiers/
  4. https://www.krapuul.nl/nieuws/2751027/herdenken-nazis-en-ssers-ysselsteyn-onaanvaardbaar/
  5. https://www.1limburg.nl/ophef-over-bloemen-bij-graf-sser-ysselsteyn
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