German War Cemetery Ysselsteyn

The war cemetery (Kriegsgräberstätte) is located in Ysselsteyn, in the Province of Limburg close to the German border. The cemetery is the only German war cemetery in the Netherlands. The cemetery was built in 1946 by order of the Dutch government not far from the city of Venray and covers an area of ​​approximately 28 hectares. 87 war dead from the First World War and almost 32,000 war dead from the Second World War found their final resting place here.

The vast majority of the war dead are German soldiers who were doing their military service during the war. But also SS members and war criminals, Dutch collaborators, Wehrmacht volunteers from other countries and a few civilians, including women and children, were buried in Ysselsteyn.

A cross was placed for every dead person. The data (name, burial location, date of birth and death, rank - if known) are applied in white on the natural stone. The youth of the JOC helps with the maintenance of the graves by means of copying the data with white markers or treating the crosses with algae agent. There are about 5,000 unknown dead buried there. These are buried with crosses that read "Ein Deutscher Soldat". This designation will disappear, because many of the dead were not Germans - there are 40 nationalities - or no soldiers in the sense of the law of war.

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Source

• Text: JOC Ysselsteyn
• Photos: Arjan Vrieze (1, 2, 5), Jeroen Koppes (3), Patrick Molders (4)
• LEEUWEN, M. VAN & STAARMAN, A., Tastbare Herinneringen 1914-1918, Western Front Association Nederland, 2008.

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