Hohenfels Polish Monuments

Within Germany, in the state of Bavaria, lies a small quiet place called Hohenfels. Often forgotten, this small region holds its own tragic story of life, death, and occupation by German forces.

Hohenfels earns its name from the predominant rock formations in the area, with its translation to English being "High Cliff'' or "High Rock." In 1937, the German Army High Command approved the acquisition of the area contained by Hohenfels, Rohrbach, Schmidmuehlen, Hohenburg, Martinsberg, Judenfeld, Schmidheim, and Grossbissendorf. The United States Army requisitioned the Hohenfels training area in 1951. It is now home to the Joint Multinational Readiness Center (JMRC) and is part of the Army's Joint Multinational Training Command (JMTC). The Hohenfels installation comprises over 40,000 acres and is the second-largest maneuver area available to United States service members in Europe.

The former Reichsumsiedlungsgesellschaft Berlin (resettlement organization), tasked with reimbursing the owners for the land required for the training area, began its activities on April 1, 1938. Five hundred forty-four properties and farms fell into a category relative to an eminent domain. However, the outbreak of World War II changed the outcome of the Hohenfels training area. In the autumn of 1939, Polish prisoners of war (POW’s) began to arrive at Hohenfels. Then, from 1939 to 1945, the Hohenfels area became a POW camp known as Stalag 383. From 1945 to 1949, it became a displaced person camp. Some POW’s could not afford to return home, and former internees from the German concentration camps of Flossenbuerg, Hersbruck, and Buchenwald arrived at the camp. From 1945 to 1949, a cemetery and three Polish monuments were added to the complex by former Polish POW’s and Polish displaced persons.

The Liberation of Hohenfels

On April 24, 1945, the 65th U.S. Infantry Division, under Major General Stanley Reinhart's leadership, came to Hohenfels and liberated Stalag 383. One year later, the remaining Polish refugees created a monument to honor the United States soldiers who liberated them. Over half the POW’s at Stalag 383 were Polish. During this time, former Polish prisoners built a cemetery north of Unteroedenhart for the many displaced persons, mainly Polish, who died during a typhoid epidemic.

The end of World War II continued to be a difficult time for those at Hohenfels. Having nothing to return to, they lacked the motivation to move on. In 1946, a delegation of 25 officials from the Hohenfels camp visited Poland, reassuring their fellow Hohenfels citizens.
These Polish displaced persons were to receive the following special considerations.

1) Border agents were not allowed to search the refugees.
2) Any personal property carried in hand was to remain theirs.
3) Foreign spouses would be allowed to return with them unless they were German.
4) The farms in the ex-German lands of Pomerania and Silesia became the property of Polish farmers from the ex-Polish lands east of the Bug River.
5) Jobs were made available for craftspersons.
6) A bona fide farmer could receive 17 to 50 acres of land, and placement on a priority list for horses and cattle, as they became available.

Reports like these and personal letters from home after the restoration of mail started a homeward movement among the Poles and Yugoslavs.

The Polish Cemetery

The exact creation date of the Hohenfels cemetery is unknown, and its only timestamp is its association with a typhoid epidemic. Not until decades later did the Polish government become aware of the Polish cemetery within the Hohenfels training area. The Polish Consulate General to Germany was Dr. Aleksander Korybut-Woroniecki. In November of 2014, Dr. Korybut visited Hohenfels after learning of the monuments by Kazimierz and Broni Kaminski, German nationals of Polish descent living in the Hohenfels area.

The cemetery itself is where approximately 240 Poles once laid in rest. In 1962, the relocation of those bodies occurred, but the headstones remained intact as a reminder of Hohenfels' past. One can assume those once interred at the cemetery received expatriation to their hometowns and family graves within Poland.

The grounds lay in ruins for decades after 1962. Before Dr. Korybut's arrival, the German American Kontakt club coordinated with the community to find agencies to help maintain the cemetery. The cemetery is cleaned annually as part of the German American Kontakt club's "Make a Difference Day" and is considered an appropriate space where the dead and the living are separated but symbolically joined as one people through the performance of transition and memorial rites. The United States Army in Hohenfels maintains the cemetery representing the combined nations' unity. The "Make a Difference Day" shows that Germany, Poland, and the United States care for the graves of those lost while in captivity.

The First Monument: The Warsaw Uprising

The first Polish monument in the Hohenfels training area is a stone landmark near its community mail room. This marker honors the participants of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. Although there is no confirmed date of when the monument realized its placement, one can assume it arose in 1946. It is certain that during the war, the Germans would have never allowed the monument to exist, as the Warsaw Uprising participants were partisans and a nuisance to the German occupiers of Poland in 1944.

On the monument, written between 1944 and 1946, is the Latin statement "The Order of Virtuti Militari," Poland's highest military honor. The stone landmark is fixated circularly with a slab in the middle depicting this honor translated "To Military Valor," courage in the face of the enemy. The creators of the moment felt the memory of those who were once Polish POW’s and Polish displaced persons must be kept alive. These individuals fought gallantly for their homeland in the Warsaw Uprising, and it is often confused with the revolt in the Warsaw Ghetto, which occurred in 1943. This monument also serves as a learning point distinguishing the two.

The Second Monument: The Cross "God’s Glory"

The cross monument sits near the Hohenfels community bank. It is approximately twelve feet tall. The inscription at the base of the cross is in German, English, and Polish and states, "MAY THE CROSS UNITE ALL NATIONS FOR GODS GLORY. THE MONUMENT HAS BEEN ERECTED BY POLES LIVING IN THE DISPLACEMENT CAMP HOHENFELS-LECHOW IN 1948." Above the wording is "GODS GLORY" in dark red. This cross shows the deep religious ties between the Polish displaced persons.

The Third Monument: The Polish Political Monument

The Polish Political Monument is also near the Hohenfels community bank and the Polish "GODS GLORY" cross monument. It is the most known in the Hohenfels training area due to Tomasz Szatkowski, Poland's Deputy Minister of Defense. Szatkowski visited Hohenfels in 2018 and noticed the neglected state of the monument. Upon discovering the plaque's dedication to United States soldiers, he wanted to assist in the monument's renovation and commemoration of the liberation during the war. The inscription of the monument states,
"TO THE GLORIOUS MEMORY OF THE HEROIC UNITED STATES ARMY. THIS STONE IS DEDICATED BY THE MANY PRISONERS OF GERMAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS ON THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THE DAY OF LIBERATION."

These three Polish monuments and cemeteries were created at the Hohenfels training area to honor Polish and United States relations along with its liberators. The memorialization of all aspects of the wartime generation needs to be kept alive. It is crucial for us living today to maintain these monuments for future generations to view to perpetuate the education of the Hohenfels training area's past and the Polish sacrifices associated with it.

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