Walking the Ground – Neuseddin Memorial

The detritus of war, still lying on the forest floor, 80 years on…

Yesterday, we went for an epic 15km walk through the woods south of Potsdam (close to Ferch/Schwielowsee) in order to find this memorial to the 80,000 soldiers & civilians who died in the area during the final days of the war.

In late April 1945, General Wenck’s 12th Army held a defensive line from Ferch (along the banks of the Schwielowsee lake) down to the town of Beelitz in order to A, rescue the Potsdam garrison, and B, lie in wait for the arrival of what remained of General Busse’s 9th Army and the thousands of civilians who accompanied them. (E.g, whoever managed to escape the Halbe Pocket.)

But to simply hold this line required an incredible effort from Wenck’s inexperienced forces, who battled day and night in intense forest battles with the Soviet 4th Guards Tank Army.

Memorials commemorate the victims on the Seelow Heights, where 82,000 Soviet and German soldiers fell, and in Halbe, where 40,000 people, including many civilians, were killed in the Battle of the Pocket. The battle around Ferch, however, seems to have been forgotten. Only in 1994, on the private initiative of Munich resident Ernst Rose, whose 18-year-old brother fell at Neuseddin in 1945, was a cross & gravestone erected for the German and Russian soldiers who fell here.

The cross mourns 80,000 dead. This is certainly too high for the fighting around here, but must also include everyone who died in the Halbe Pocket as well.

In any case, lying literally a few meters from the cross, you can still find foxholes, rifle rounds, and all manner of twisted metal items and discarded equipment.

All traces of the incredible numbers of soldiers and civilians who swept through the area…