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In these autumn days, when we commemorate our
deceased friends and relatives, a few members of our club (Marder,
Heller and Bobo) have decided to visit also two WW2 military
cemeteries and symbolically show respect to the soldiers who fought
have fallen on both sides of this conflict by lighting candles on
their graves.
Ružinov
Our first visit was at the German military cemetery in Bratislava –
Ružinov. Here, aside of the main cemetery, rest in piece 960 German
soldiers, who have fallen in Bratislava in 1945. The cemetery was
sanctified on June 17, 2000 and is kept tidy and clean. It is rather
in the shadow of the two better known German military cemeteries in Važec and Hunkovce. It is small, but since it is situated in the
capital city, it deserves more attention, since it was founded due
to protocol reasons. It was the request of the German – since in
every capital, there is a military cemetery.
Slavín
The cemetery of fallen soviet soldiers on the hill Slavín is
certainly better known to everybody. Here lie soviet soldiers, who
have left their lives liberating Bratislava during WW2. The well
known memorial was uncovered in 1960 at the 15th
anniversary of the liberation of Bratislava by the Red Army. Here,
on the cemetery situated around the monument are buried 6845
soldiers. Exact numbers of visitors are not available, but Slavín is
a point of interest for a lot of local people, but also for tourists
from all over Slovakia and abroad. Many of them still keep looking
for their relatives even years after the war.
Conclusion
It makes me quite happy that finally it is possible in Slovakia (and
Bratislava) to commemorate and give respect to fallen soldiers from
both sides without any political prejudice, ideology or mutual
incrimination of sympathizing with one party or the other. It is
good if we can think of simple Wehrmacht and Red Army soldiers, who
had to die, often against their will, in the name of an ideology, in
the name of a war conflict, which only brought suffering to nations
and which took sons from their mothers, husbands from wives and
children from their fathers
And here a few pictures from our visit to the both cemeteries
Author: Panzer Marder |