European Heritage Label
for the Site of National Remembrance in Łambinowice
Paweł Sawicki
The Site of National Remembrance in Łambinowice and the Central Museum of Prisoners-of-War (CMJW) operating within the site and taking care of its premises have been included on a prestigious list of ten facilities belonging to national heritage distinguished with European Heritage Label 2019. The decision of the European Commission was announced on March 31st this year. The distinction is awarded by independent experts to the sites which played particular role in shaping the history and culture of Europe or developing values constituting the foundation for European integration.
Let us recall what the Site of National Remembrance in Łambinowice represents. It is the area within the Opole voivodeship formed by post-camp premises as well as war cemeteries, the unique testimony of the escalation of armed conflicts – from the Prussian-French war in the 19th century through the First World War to the apogee of violence and disrespect of human rights during the Second World War, when Stalag Lamsdorf, one of the biggest Wehrmacht camp complexes in Europe, was in operation in the territory. Material evidence of social consequences of armed conflicts (and moving the borders) was also preserved in Łambinowice, connected with the history of camps for migrating civilians: the German camp (1921–1924) and the Polish one (labour camp 1945-1946). We present them according to the order in which they appear on the so called Route of Memory.
Old POWs Cemetery is the oldest one. It was established during the Prussian-French war. It is distinguished by its personalized, marked burial, monuments commemorating POWs of different European nations and its scale – it is one of the biggest, the best preserved cemeteries for POWs in Europe. It keeps the ashes of over 7 thousand people, mainly from the WW1.
Former premises of Stalag VIII B (344) Lamsdorf, POWs camp from WW2, are adjacent to the cemetery. It is the place where, from the beginning of the war, POWs from the anti-Hitler coalition were deported (first mostly Polish in 1939, and British from 1940).
The next object on the so called Route of Memory is the Museum having its seat in the buildings of former Wehrmacht range headquarters, then former premises of the Labour Camp in Łambinowice (1945-1946), in which over 5 thousand German citizens were waiting for their resettlement into Germany, and the cemetery of its victims (1.5 thousand individuals).
Then one will find the remnants of Stalag 318/VIII F (344) Lamsdorf, established for the group of POWs which was the most numerous and the most violently treated by the German, namely the Red Army soldiers. In Lamsdorf it amounted to ca. 200 thousand people, from which ca. 40 thousand died. POWs representing other nationalities were also incarcerated in this Stalag: Italian, Greek, Slovak, French, Romanian, and in 1944, the insurrectionists of the Warsaw Uprising, commemorated by an obelisk in 1997.
Old POWs cemetery. All pictures in the article courtesy of CMJW