Original caption reads: "German civilians of Wuelfel watch the disinternment of the murdered Russian prisoners."

Photograph | Digitized | Photograph Number: 78911

Overview

Caption: Original caption reads: "German civilians of Wuelfel watch the disinternment of the murdered Russian prisoners."
Date: 1945
Locale: Hanover-Wuelfel, [Prussian Hanover; Lower Saxony] Germany
Variant Locale: Hannover-Wuelfel
Wuelfel
Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Ron Leidelmeyer
Event History: "Nazi SS troops shot over 200 Russian Army officers and enlisted men, prisoners-of-war at Wulfel, a suburb of Hanover. The victims were marching to Wulfel from their previous prisoner camp near Libenau, 50 kilometers from Hanover, as the Americans took the latter city. Twenty-five of the victims, including one woman, were forced to dig the graves before being murdered. During the proceedings, one of the group killed a German guard with a shovel, escaped into the woods nearby and heard the shooting as the Germans massacred his comrades in cold blood. The bodies were put into mass graves and hastily covered with earth. When troops of the 35th Division, Ninth U.S. Army took over the camp, German civilians and Nazi Party members of Hanover were ordered to witness and to participate in the exhuming of the bodies May 2, 1945. The Americans stood by to supervise as they dug up the victims and with bare hands, wrapped them in clean white sheets for decent burial near Hanover City Hall. Many of the dead were recognized by friends and relatives still in the area who witnessed the ceremony."

[original Signal Corps extended caption.]

Photo Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Provenance: Ron Leidelmeyer

Source Record ID: Collections: 2013.466

Keyword: ARMBANDS FORCED CONFRONTATION GERMANS GROUP PORTRAITS WOMEN
Photo Designation: LIBERATION -- Germany: Atrocities/Death March Victims -- Other -- Hannover