The Golm War Cemetery is a World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 cemetery near the village of Kamminke

Kamminke

Kamminke is a municipality in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.-External links:...

 close to the German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

-Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 border on the island of Usedom

Usedom

Usedom is a Baltic Sea island on the border between Germany and Poland. It is situated north of the Szczecin Lagoon estuary of the River Oder in Pomerania...

 maintained and managed by the German War Graves Commission

German War Graves Commission

The German War Graves Commission is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of German war graves in Europe and North Africa...

. The cemetery is the largest war cemetery in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and one of the largest in Germany.

History

The Golm is the highest lying land on the island of Usedom (69 m) and was a popular tourist destination prior to World War II. The cemetery was created in 1944, initially for soldiers of the nearby garrisons of Swinemünde (Świnoujście) and the Garz air base

Heringsdorf Airport

Heringsdorf Airport is a regional airport located near Garz on the island of Usedom in Germany. It takes its name from the nearby municipality of Heringsdorf, located some 10 km to the north. The largest town on the island is Świnoujście , located in Poland, immediately to the east of the...

. About 250 Soldiers of the German Navy

Kriegsmarine

The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...

, the crew of a sunken U-boat

U-boat

U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...

 and at least 1,000 Wehrmacht

Wehrmacht

The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...

 and Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....

 soldiers are buried here.

Air Raid

In early 1945, Swinemünde was the destination port for refugees from East Prussia

Evacuation of East Prussia

The evacuation of East Prussia refers to the evacuation of the German civilian population and military personnel in East Prussia and the Klaipėda region between 20 January, and March 1945, as part of the evacuation of German civilians towards the end of World War II...

 under Operation Hannibal

Operation Hannibal

Operation Hannibal was a German military operation involving the evacuation by sea of German troops and civilians from Courland, East Prussia, and the Polish Corridor from mid-January to May, 1945 as the Red Army advanced during the East Prussian and East Pomeranian Offensives and subsidiary...

. On the eastern shore of the Swine river

Swina

The Świna is a river in Poland flowing from the Oder Lagoon to the Baltic Sea, between the islands of Usedom and Wolin. It is a part of the Oder River estuary, and carries about 75% of that river's waterflow . It has a length of about 16 km...

 (Świna) refugees from Farther Pomerania

Farther Pomerania

Farther Pomerania, Further Pomerania, Transpomerania or Eastern Pomerania , which before the German-Polish border shift of 1945 comprised the eastern part of the Duchy, later Province of Pomerania, roughly stretching from the Oder River in the West to Pomerelia in the East...

 waited for a chance to ferry across the watercourse as they fled the advancing Red Army

East Pomeranian Offensive

The East Pomeranian Strategic Offensive operation was an offensive by the Red Army in its fight against the German Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front...

.

At around noon on 12 March 1945, 671 bombers of the US Eighth Air Force

Eighth Air Force

The Eighth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command . It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana....

 carrying 1,456 ton

Ton

The ton is a unit of measure. It has a long history and has acquired a number of meanings and uses over the years. It is used principally as a unit of weight, and as a unit of volume. It can also be used as a measure of energy, for truck classification, or as a colloquial term.It is derived from...

s of bombs raided the town.
Due to uncertainty concerning the number of refugees within the town the exact number of casualties is unknown. As the capacity of air raid shelters was limited to the regular populace, many refugees were killed at the spa gardens. The motor vessel Andros (2,995 GRT

Gross Register Tonnage

Gross register tonnage a ship's total internal volume expressed in "register tons", one of which equals to a volume of . It is calculated from the total permanently enclosed capacity of the vessel. The ship's net register tonnage is obtained by reducing the volume of non-revenue-earning spaces i.e...

), carrying about 2,000 refugees, had just arrived at the harbour and was sunk with the loss of about 570 people. The motor vessels Cordillera (12,055 GRT), Tolina (2,000 GRT), Heiligenhafen (1,923 GRT), Ravensberg (1,069 GRT) Hilde (491 GRT) and Jasmund (276 GRT) were also sunk.

About 500 victims of the raid were identified and buried close to the entrance of the cemetery and the remaining dead were buried in mass graves. The estimated number of victims varies from about 5,000 to 23,000. The German War Graves Commission estimates that 20,000 victims are buried at the Golm cemetery with further burials within the town limits.

Postwar

Golm lay directly on the newly created Oder-Neisse line

Oder-Neisse line

The Oder–Neisse line is the border between Germany and Poland which was drawn in the aftermath of World War II. The line is formed primarily by the Oder and Lusatian Neisse rivers, and meets the Baltic Sea west of the seaport cities of Szczecin and Świnoujście...

 that marked the new border between Germany and Poland. Following the war, most refugees continued to move to the west and the local German populace was expelled. The cemetery attracted only slight attention and the area had almost turned into a forest again. In the 1950s the Pomeranian Evangelical Church

Pomeranian Evangelical Church

The Pomeranian Evangelical Church is a Protestant church body in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, serving the citizens living in Hither Pomerania. It combines Lutheran and Reformed traditions...

 began caring for the site. However a large wooden cross placed there in 1954 was immediately destroyed and East German authorities forbade the erection of Robert Leptien’s sculpture "Freezing Woman" (1952) because it did not match the artistic perceptions of the communist party

Socialist Unity Party of Germany

The Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the governing party of the German Democratic Republic from its formation on 7 October 1949 until the elections of March 1990. The SED was a communist political party with a Marxist-Leninist ideology...

 line. In the late 1960s the local administration rearranged the cemetery and removed any Christian symbols and individual headstones. An official memorial site was established in 1975,
the main memorial bears the inscription That never again a mother mourns her son., a line from the East German national anthem Auferstanden aus Ruinen

Auferstanden aus Ruinen

' was the national anthem of East Germany during its existence from 1949 to 1990.-History:...

 by Johannes R. Becher

Johannes R. Becher

Johannes Robert Becher was a German politician, novelist, and poet.-Early life:Johannes R. Becher was the son of Judge Heinrich Becher. In 1910 he tried to commit suicide with a friend; only Becher survived. From 1911 he studied medicine and philosophy in Munich and Jena...

.

While Leptien had moved to West Berlin

West Berlin

West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...

 his sculpture remained at his former garden and was finally erected at the cemetery without an official permission in 1984.

After the Reunification of Germany the German War Graves Commission took over the care of the cemetery and opened an International Youth Meeting Center in 2005 with the purpose of strengthening and cultivating democracy in Europe.