Introduction
The walk starts at Bad Fallingbostel Railway Station. It follows in the footsteps of countless prisoners of war of various nationalities, who were incarcerated in three large POW camps around Oerbke during World War II. It continues through the former farming village of Oerbke, skirting St Barbara Barracks, and ending at the Displaced Persons Cemetery, on Hartemer Weg.
Bad Fallingbostel Bahnhof
From the small car park in Bahnhof Straße, make your way on to the platform. On the outside wall, to the right of the small waiting room, is a memorial to Russian Prisoners of War.
The memorial shows a man behind two parallel strands of barbed wire. The inscription recounts that: “From this railway station, from July 1941, often after enduring forced marches for weeks on end, 10,000 Soviet prisoners of war were transported into cattle trucks to Camp Oerbke (Stalag XID/321). Around 30,000 died from hunger, exposure, or disease.”
On 1 September 1939 Germany invaded Poland, and plunged Europe into war. In May 1940, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg were invaded, and on 22 June 1940 France surrendered unconditionally. Large numbers of prisoners of war were force marched to transit camps or Dulags, herded into cattle trucks, and transported to various camps or Stalags (Stammlagers)
On 22 June 1941 Germany launched Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union. Thousands of Soviet soldiers were brought to Fallingbostel Station from the Eastern Front.
From the memorial, walk along the platform, and turn right into Vogteistraße, pass the town's cemetery, and proceed under Autobahn 7 bridge to the T junction of Fallingbosteler Straße with Queen's Avenue, the former Adolf Hitler Straße.
The A7 is the longest of the German Autobahns. It extends 935 km from the Danish border in the north, to the Austrian border in the south.
Stalag XIB 1939–1945
About two kilometres from the station a sign saying “Kriegsgräberstätte Nur Fußweg” points the way to the Cemetery of the Nameless. Turn left down the path through the conifer plantation. You are entering the site of the former Stalag XIB.
The former Wehrmacht camp extended further down Queen's Avenue than St Barbara Barracks does today. It was constructed between 1936–37. Then, it was one large camp, rather than two separate camps divided by a main road, and incorporated the railway crossings as well as the large food storage depots. Across the road from the former Stalag XIB, was the barracks of the Landesschützenbattalion XV/XI, who guarded the POWs.
The plan of the former POW camps illustrates well the lay out of the three camps that extended from Oerbke, to the former barracks of the Wehrmacht, now St Barbara / Lumsden Barracks. In May 1934 this part of the Lüneburg Heath was designated a military training area for the Panzer Divisions of the Wehrmacht. Farms were compulsorily purchased and farmers resettled. Labourers were brought in to construct a large barracks on the western part of the heath, today's “NATO Lager Oerbke”. These workers were accommodated in 32 wooden barracks outside the main camp. The Bergen–Hohne training area opened for military use in 1938.
With the outbreak of war the labourers' camp became a POW camp, initially for Polish soldiers, and later for soldiers from France, Great Britain, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Yugoslavia and Czecho–Slovakia, the United States and the Soviet Union. Between 1939 and June 1941, 53,000 POWs were registered in the camps, 51,000 of whom were forced to work in factories and mines at Salzgitter, Wolfsburg, and Braunschweig, east of Hannover.
Walk down the path with the A7 on your left and the gardens of houses built on the site of the former Stalag XIB to your right. The concrete foundations of some of the barracks are still visible in the undergrowth. Proceed to three sentinel boulders.
These boulders are a reminder of the last Ice Age, when this part of Germany was covered by a sheet of ice. Ten thousand years ago the glaciers retreated leaving behind a trail of moranic boulders. A selection of these is arranged in the Megalith Park Osterberg on Hindenburg Straße.
Continue down the path, past the sewage treatment plant, and down to the small bridge across the Oerbker Bach. Cross the bridge and head slightly uphill towards an entrance in the fence that traverses the path. Ignore the paths that head to your left, and diagonally opposite towards the right.
The Cemetery of the Nameless—Russian War Cemetery
Once through the fence turn right, and using the fence as a handrail follow it to its end, from where a visible path takes you through oak and beech plantations to the left of a wooden bridge. A car park lies on the other end of the bridge. Turn left to the new gates of KriegsGraberstatte Oerbke 1941–45. The original entrance to the cemetery was directly opposite the present one.
The KriegsGraberstatte Oerbke 1941–1945 covers an area of 14,888 square meters. It has 30,000 unknown Russian prisoners of war, buried in a collective grave. Most of these died in Stalag XID/321.
Also buried here are:
- Yugoslavs: 75
- Polish: 25
- French: 5
- Belgian: 1
- Slovakians: 2
- Russians individual graves: 94
- Nationalities unknown: 12
- Unknown dead POWs: 18
The cemetery was given its present appearance between 1962–65. A hundred and nine memorial stones recording 920 names of former French, Yugoslavs, Poles, Slovacks, Belgians, and Russian prisoners of war are arranged in clusters of three across the burial ground.
The monument to the Russian dead is at the far right of the cemetery. A memorial was initially erected in 1945, but was subsequently replaced by the current sculpture. It was designed by Klaus Seelenmeyer in 1964 and erected by the firm Dykerhoff. The four upright arms embrace a memorial stone which says:
In memory of those many thousand Russian soldiers
Lying here in peace
Who died as Prisoners of War.
The small French memorial obelisk was erected on 16 June 1990. It commemorates the 132 French soldiers who died in Stalag XIB between 1940–1945.
The Polish Memorial stone lies near the exit of the cemetery. It reads:
1939–1945
May your mortal remains
Become the seed of
Freedom for all nations
Marquartsfeld
Leave the cemetery through the gate by the Polish memorial, and turn right on to a defined path. As you walk past the boundary of the Russian POW Cemetery you come to an open space enclosed by trees. This was the “Foreigner's Cemetery” or the former cemetery of Stalag XIB and Stalag 357. It was abandoned in 1958, when the remains of 607 soldiers of various nationalities were re–buried in other cemeteries, and another 127 were re–interred in the Cemetery of the Nameless.
Carry on along this path, and into an open space known as Marquartsfeld, the site of the infamous Stalag XID.
In May–June 1941, a second camp was built a thousand metres north east of Stalag XIB, for the large number of Russian POW captured during Operation Barbarossa. It was first called Stalag 321, later renamed Stalag XID. By August 1941 it held already 8000 Soviet POWs.
No accommodation was available for the many Russians prisoners who were kept here, until barracks started to be built in November 1941. Conditions were so bad that by Spring 1943 more than 12,000 had died from hunger, cold, exhaustion, typhoid, tuberculosis, and lice borne diseases. In April 1943, Stalag XID/321 was dissolved and incorporated as a partial camp towards the rear of Stalag XIB
By mid 1944 there were some 96,000 POWs in the camps around Oerbke. When the Eastern Front collapsed, the camps in the east were relocated, to preclude them falling into Russian hands. Stalag 357, which was in Thorn, Poland, was transferred to Oerbke, and incorporated into the former Stalag XID. The barracks for the relocated Stalag 357 was built by Italian POWs, whose camp was at the site now occupied by Heide Primary School in St Barbara Barracks.
From August 1944 the area occupied by the former Stalag XID, became Stalag 357 and served as a detention centre for British, American, Canadian, South African, and New Zealand POWs. After the war (1945–1949), the British used it as a Civilian Internment Camp.
On 16 April 1945 the camps around Oerbke were liberated by B Squadron 11th Hussars, and a recce troop of 8th Kings Royal Irish Hussars.
Proceed down the road with conifers on either side. Lying on the right side of the path is what is left of the barracks of the former stalag XID/357.
The relatively straight path ends at a transverse metal barrier. Here was one of the two entrances to the camp. The other was at the back, and led to the “Foreigner's Cemetery” and the Russian POW Cemetery. To the right is the former delousing station. This is the only intact building to have survived the bulldozers which flattened the camp, reverting Marquartsfeld to its original open space.
Oerbke
Join Am Sande and walk down to its junction with Fallingbosteler Straße. At the corner is building number 22, the former farm of Johann Peter Grünhagen and Anna Maria nee Dreier. The timber framed farm was built on 1 June 1839. It was given up in 1938, to make way for the construction of the military training area. Note the large black wooden storage structure. This is a Treppenspeicher, or stairway storehouse, a common feature on farms in the Vogelpark–Region.
The brick built farm across the road, at number 13, is Cohrs Hof, of Heinrich and Christine Cohrs nee Meyer. It was built in 1904, and replaced a timber framed farmhouse.
The former farming village of Oerbke lies on the western edge of the Osterheide, which together with Lohheide in the district of Celle, forms the NATO military training area. It has 550 inhabitants, excluding the large British military base.
The Osterheide is one of three inhabited municipality–free zones (Gemeinderefreier Bezirk), the other two being Lohheide, in the Celle District, also in Lower Saxony with 761 inhabitants, and Münsingen in the Reutlingen District in Baden–Württemberg with a population of 258.
The Osterheide has 835 inhabitants and covers an area of 177,99 km square kilometres. The three inhabited municipality-free areas are comparable to a municipality, but instead of a Local Council and Mayor, they have a District Commissioner as their chief administrator.
Oerbke first appears in the records of the Monastery of Walsrode in 1256 under the name of Oebeke, meaning “Small River”. Then, as now, it formed part of the parish of Vallingbostel. In 1438, Oerbke had eight working farms. The excellent condition of the soil meant that the farms were not only self sufficient, but also produced such an abundant harvest, that they supplied other villages in time of need.
By 1770, Oerbke was the wealthiest village of the Heidemark. It had very good pasture land, and was the first village in the eastern Heidemark to introduce sheep from the Rhineland.
On 1 August 1938, Oerbke became incorporated in the Bergen–Hohne training area and 886 hectacres of land were bought by the Werhmacht. All 205 inhabitants were relocated.
Am Sande merges into Fallingbosteler Straße. Cross the small bridge over the Oerbker Bach. The farm nesting in the corner to your left is the Youth Education Centre. It was formerly the guest house “Zum Heidekrug”. Turn left into Gillweg Str to reach the heart of the old village. At number 7 is the seat of the Osterheide administration, which is based at Oerbke. Two corn grinding stones from the old mill at Oerbke are preserved in the front garden of the office building.
At number 9 is the former Harms Hof with another Treppenspeicher.
The lower floor of the Treppenspeicher was used for storage of beekeeping equipment, honey, flax working tools, and smoked meat. The upper floor was reached by an external staircase, and used for the storage of corn. Above the two side doors of this Treppenspeicher are two inscriptions dating the structure to 1774. The inscription on the left reads: “Albrech Ebeling Anno 1774” and the one on the right: “Catrina Magretah Beckmans den 93VLI”
There are a number of old barns and farmsteads around here. Retrace your steps up Gillweg, pass the War Memorial unveiled in 1960, and enter Am Schutzenplatz to rejoin Fallingbosteler Straße. At number 12 Fallingbosteler Str is the former house of the mill owner Karl Heinz Bischoff.
A steam driven mill once existed on this site, but only the house is still standing. It is now owned by the Federal Government and has been divided into flats. Like the rest of the inhabitants of Oerbke, Karl Heinz Bischoff was relocated to Fallingbostel in 1937. His steam driven saw mill used to supply planks to the neighbouring villages and towns as far away as Bremen and Verden. A whistle powered by steam from the boiler announced the start of the working day to the 30 labourers. It also acted as an unofficial village clock and fire alarm. A continuous warble was the signal for the inhabitants to come out and fight any large fire.
The mill had a number of horse driven carriages and about 14 stables for the horses that pulled the log carts. It also had accommodation for the saw mill workers, as well as for the labourers that worked in the grinding mills, producing flour and rape seed oil.
Former Wehrmacht Camp
From Oerbke, the road skirts a conifer plantation which covers the foundations of the former barracks of the Landesschützenbattalion XV/XI. These were for the POW camp guards. Take the second turning on your left.
Here you will find the Stalag XIB (357) POW Memorial Gate, which was unveiled on 16 April 2005, on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the camps. The memorial is dedicated to the prisoners of war from 13 nations, who were incarcerated in Stalag XID and Stalag 357 from 1939–1945.
Pass the memorial, turn right, and walk up the concrete loading ramp besides a disused railway track. On the other side are three huge food warehouses. These now look rather forlorn, but in the 1940s the railway sidings and the depots were actually within the perimeter of the camp. The ramp descends into a clearing on Queen's Avenue. Turn left and walk towards the entrance to St Barbara Barracks.
Polish Cemetery
St Barbara Barracks is a restricted military area and is not open to the public. To get to the Displaced Person (Polish) Cemetery, cross Konrad Zuse Straß, and then take the footpath immediately to your right. This takes you around the camp to Hartemer Weg. On your way you will pass the former Italian POW camp which was situated where Heide Primary School and the Royal Military Police Station are now located. In winter the path can be rather muddy but it goes through woodland, and if you are lucky you may encounter deer browsing on the verges. The path emerges on Hartemer Weg to the right of a wooden bus stop shelter.
Cross Hartemer Weg to the Displaced Person Cemetery. The cemetery covers an area of 1,360 square meters. It contains the graves of a hundred and forty five “homeless foreigners”, who died between 1945 and 1949, in the Poles' Camp, which was administered by the British military in the nearby former Wehrmacht barracks. The cemetery has 35 gravestones, a wooden cross, and a memorial stone with 43 inscriptions. Buried here are Poles, Latvians, Ukranians and Serbs. In the DP Cemetery are also the remains of 59 Polish children who died before their first birthday.
The Displaced Persons (DP) camp, also known as the Poles Camp, predominantly housed released Polish POWs and displaced Polish citizens and their families form Stalag XIB, as well as other displaced persons from North German Districts. They remained here until they were processed for emigration to Australia, Canada, and the United States of America.
On 1 March 1946 there were 22,634 registered displaced persons. Most were resettled abroad, so that by 1 January 1950, when the DP camp was shut, only 7,219 DPs remained in Oerbke.
The walk “Around Oerbke” ends here. To return to the Bahnhof make your way down Hartemer Weg, pass under the A7 bridge and walk along Kraft Food production plant which brings you out on Road 209. Turn right here and walk down Deiler Weg, into Heinrichs Straße to the car park at Bad Fallingbostel Bahnhof.