Lüneburg (Massacre on 11 April 1945)

On 7 April 1945, a train carrying around 400 prisoners from the Wilhelmshaven satellite camp (Alter Banter Weg) who were “unable to march” was attacked by Allied bombers at the Lüneburg railway station. At least 256 prisoners died in the attack. The survivors were rounded up in a field. The next day, the SS took around 140 of them to Bergen-Belsen. The remaining 60 to 80 prisoners, some of whom were injured, were murdered on 11 April 1945 in Lüneburg by the Wehrmacht soldiers who were guarding them and the single remaining SS officer, Gustav Alfred Jepsen. 

Period

7 April 1945 to 11 April 1945

Number of Prisoners

400

Kind of Work

Labor on Behalf of

Location

Directions

Directions: The cemetery is located in the northern part of the forest known as Tiergarten; the cemetery is signposted from Elsterallee in the suburb of Wilschenbruch, 21337 Lüneburg, Germany.

Memorial

In the Tiergarten cemetery, there is a burial site for the concentration camp prisoners who died in the bombing raid on 7 April 1945 and those who were killed in the massacre on 11 April 1945. 256 victims were buried there originally, but some were moved and reburied elsewhere, so today there are 167. A memorial stone was erected in 1954.

The “Geschichtswerkstatt Lüneburg” (Lüneburg history workshop) is planning to open a small permanent exhibition in a historical goods car.

Contact

Geschichtswerkstatt Lüneburg e. V.
Heiligengeiststraße 28
21335 Lüneburg
Germany

Tel.: +49 (0) 4131 – 4 01 93 6
Fax: +49 (0) 4131 – 4 03 65 6
Email: info@geschichtswerkstatt-lueneburg.de
Homepage: www.geschichtswerkstatt-lueneburg.de