wholagun
02-04-2004, 10:29 PM
Poland Probes Burial of German Soldiers
By BEATA PASEK
Associated Press Writer
February 3, 2004, 11:22 AM EST
WARSAW, Poland -- Poland is investigating whether former Nazi Auschwitz death camp guards were given honored burials at a World War II cemetery for regular German troops who died in Poland, an officials said Tuesday.
The investigation comes after newspapers reported that the cemetery in the town of Nadolice in southwestern Poland contains the remains of Adolf Hitler's elite SS soldiers, including former Auschwitz guards. Some of their names also are reportedly inscribed in the cemetery's memorial wall.
The common grave containing 11,000 soldiers buried there is otherwise unmarked.
"We will check those allegations," said Andrzej Przewoznik, the head of a Polish government agency that oversees war memorials. "If they're true, we will ask the German side to eliminate those names from the memorial wall."
Przewoznik said it was possible that the former Auschwitz guards had joined German units on the eastern front and were buried in the cemetery as regular soldiers.
Germany invaded Poland in 1939, setting off World War II. By the end of the war in 1945, some 850,000 German soldiers died on Polish soil. Poland was also the site of Auschwitz, one of the most notorious Nazi death camps, where more than 1 million Jews were murdered in the Nazi Holocaust of 6 million Jews.
Nadolice is one of 10 cemeteries established after 1991 for German soldiers in Poland. The Germany-based Commemoration and Peace Foundation cares for the site.
Fritz Kirchmeier, a spokesman for the foundation, said it would be very unlikely for such a cemetery not to include some SS soldiers.
"It doesn't automatically mean they were war criminals," Kirchmeier said. "If we build a cemetery, we don't automatically decide if someone was good or evil. The visitor must decide that."
The cemeteries were not intended to memorialize German soldiers, rather to give them a proper burial site, he said. "All of the dead have a right to a grave, that's our opinion," Kirchmeier said.
The SS, short for Schutzstaffel, was the dreaded paramilitary unit of the Nazi party. It was used as a special police and involved in some of the worst crimes committed in territory under Nazi control during World War II.
Better equipped than regular army troops, the Waffen-SS, the fighting branch of the organization, was used notably to secure Nazi-occupied areas and to combat partisans or other opposition forces. They also fought on the front lines next to regular army troops.
The presence of Waffen-SS members at a German military cemetery visited by former President Ronald Reagan was the source of an uproar in 1985.
Jewish groups, U.S. congressmen and veterans' groups assailed Reagan for the visit, which German Chancellor Helmut Kohl had included on the presidential itinerary in an effort to mark U.S.-German reconciliation 40 years after the end of the war.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-poland-germany-war-graves,0,6202200.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines
By BEATA PASEK
Associated Press Writer
February 3, 2004, 11:22 AM EST
WARSAW, Poland -- Poland is investigating whether former Nazi Auschwitz death camp guards were given honored burials at a World War II cemetery for regular German troops who died in Poland, an officials said Tuesday.
The investigation comes after newspapers reported that the cemetery in the town of Nadolice in southwestern Poland contains the remains of Adolf Hitler's elite SS soldiers, including former Auschwitz guards. Some of their names also are reportedly inscribed in the cemetery's memorial wall.
The common grave containing 11,000 soldiers buried there is otherwise unmarked.
"We will check those allegations," said Andrzej Przewoznik, the head of a Polish government agency that oversees war memorials. "If they're true, we will ask the German side to eliminate those names from the memorial wall."
Przewoznik said it was possible that the former Auschwitz guards had joined German units on the eastern front and were buried in the cemetery as regular soldiers.
Germany invaded Poland in 1939, setting off World War II. By the end of the war in 1945, some 850,000 German soldiers died on Polish soil. Poland was also the site of Auschwitz, one of the most notorious Nazi death camps, where more than 1 million Jews were murdered in the Nazi Holocaust of 6 million Jews.
Nadolice is one of 10 cemeteries established after 1991 for German soldiers in Poland. The Germany-based Commemoration and Peace Foundation cares for the site.
Fritz Kirchmeier, a spokesman for the foundation, said it would be very unlikely for such a cemetery not to include some SS soldiers.
"It doesn't automatically mean they were war criminals," Kirchmeier said. "If we build a cemetery, we don't automatically decide if someone was good or evil. The visitor must decide that."
The cemeteries were not intended to memorialize German soldiers, rather to give them a proper burial site, he said. "All of the dead have a right to a grave, that's our opinion," Kirchmeier said.
The SS, short for Schutzstaffel, was the dreaded paramilitary unit of the Nazi party. It was used as a special police and involved in some of the worst crimes committed in territory under Nazi control during World War II.
Better equipped than regular army troops, the Waffen-SS, the fighting branch of the organization, was used notably to secure Nazi-occupied areas and to combat partisans or other opposition forces. They also fought on the front lines next to regular army troops.
The presence of Waffen-SS members at a German military cemetery visited by former President Ronald Reagan was the source of an uproar in 1985.
Jewish groups, U.S. congressmen and veterans' groups assailed Reagan for the visit, which German Chancellor Helmut Kohl had included on the presidential itinerary in an effort to mark U.S.-German reconciliation 40 years after the end of the war.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-poland-germany-war-graves,0,6202200.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines