The first time in Donbass it was planned to perform an international burial. According to the project "Reconciliation and Agreement in the XXIst century", it is necessary to bring the remains of German, Rumanian, Austrian, Hungarian and other prisoners of war (including even Japanese, who were working on the construction of mines of Donbass) on the cemetery. Donetsk city authorities approved the idea; however, because of the difficulties with the financing and differences in the national traditions (Italians, for example, usually dig the remains of its soldiers and take them to bury into native land) everything remained on the paper.
Germans, truely related to the project with considerable attention. People Union (Volksbund) founded 100 years ago is already occupied by questions of the burials of German soldiers in many countries of peace. In Ukraine it created and is a guardian of about ten cemeteries - Kharkov, Sevastopol, Zaporozh'ye, Kiev and Odessa.
In Donetsk authorities nevertheless affirmed the plans of building. Archive documents SBU and statements of witnesses confirmed that in the grave more than two hundred German prisoners of war are actually buried. For complete confidence specialists of the Volksbund conducted earthwork, bored the earth.
As partner in Donetsk the Germans chose the charitable foundation "Obelisk" (President - Igor Pogukay, Director - Anatolij Dermeiner), and work was in full swing.
Question: "Before the exhumation they will begin to unearth the remains of German soldiers in entire Donetsk?" - asked our correspondent the director of "Obelisk".
Answer: "The specific work on the exhumation will be carried out", answered Anatolij Dermeiner" - from 1943 through 1954. According to gosarkhivov (archive), in Donetsk there were 37 cemeteries of prisoners of war. They were all destroyed - simply rolled over by bulldozers. Who remembers that during the occupation in the region of the covered central market a large German cemetery was located, which was subsequently destroyed? So that we literally walk in the city on bones.
It is not possible to name a similar civilized relation to the corpses. In this sense this is something what we can learn of the Germans. When the previous mayor of Donetks Vladimir Rybak arrived at the sister-city Bochum, he laid flowers at the cemetery of Soviet soldiers, which is preserved in an ideal state. But when the delegation of Bochum arrived here in Donetsk, where tenthousands of German soldiers are buried, then situation appeared somewhat awkward."
Q: "And which is the place where the cemetery will be build?"
A: "Actually this is enormous vacant land at the outskirts of the city, administratively this place is on the territory of Donetsk. All fields around are worked on by local farmers and by agricultural enterprises. But this wedge no one wanted to take - people knew that there is a mass burial, and they rejected the section. Now the the territory is taken by the city for a constant use as a cemetery. The appropriate order is already signed by the new urban head A. Luk'yanchenko's. They will organize a proper section, enclosed by a low wall from natural stone, and will establish an ensemble of several rock crosses."
Q: "At whose expenses all this will be done?"
A: "For all works, materials etc. pays the Volksbund, the Donetsk cemetery not will not cost a kopeck. This project is even advantageous to the city. At one hand that new work sites are created, our memorial complex is capable to draw the flow of German tourists. Although, of course, in this case to speak about the money and about the commercial benefit is not entirely ethical. The main value of the created memorial is moral."
© Kiewskij Vedomosti No. 128, Monday, 17 June 2002 (Russisches Original)