CS / EN

Monument to the Victims of a Death March, Stará Knížecí Huť

Basic Information

Location
Česko > Plzeňský kraj > okres Tachov > Lesná > Stará Knížecí Huť
Location Details: Approximately 400 m southwest from the village, by the forest path opposite the former border control base, that was later a customs checkpoint

Coordinates
49.719399, 12.463908

Type
Holocaust monument / memorial

Location
Mass grave

Artist / Maker / Company
Zbyněk Liška (Realization), Jiří Nenutil (Realization)

Textual Content
Historical narrative

Languages
Czech, German

Whom the Monument Commemorates
Victims of Nazism, Death marches, Victims of concentration camps, Jewish victims

The victims of the death march from Buchenwald cocentration camp to Flossenbürg concentration camp

Iconographical Subject
Magen David, Thorn crown, Cross

Material
Metal, stone

Dimensions
Width: 100 cm (Approx.)
Height: 250 cm (Approx.)
Depth: 200 cm (Approx.)

Dates

2011 Construction

Description

The site of the mass grave is marked by two crosses at the head of a long gravesite lined with stone kerbs. In the centre of the left cross there is a metal crown of thorns and below it a wooden tablet with a text. The metal cross on the right bears a Magen David at the very top and a metal crown of thorns hangs at the front. Dates and the number of victims are engraved on the arms of the right cross. An information board on the history of the death marches is located by the forest path.

Inscription

(Metal cross)

37
1933 – 1945

(Tablet on the wooden cross)

Zde odpočívá 37 neviných obětí krva=
vého nacistického teroru z kon=
centračního tábora v Buchenwaldu.
Hier ruhen 37 unschuldige Opfer des
blutigen Naziterrors aus dem Kon=
zentrationslager – Buchenwald.

History

The monument is dedicated to the victims of the death march, including Jewish victims, from Buchenwald concentration camp headed to Flossenbürg concentration camp. They were transported to Tachov by train and from there they continued on foot. As a result of the appalling conditions, many hundreds of prisoners died or were murdered by the guards. At this particular site, 37 prisoners were murdered and buried. In 1946, the remains buried here were exhumed and moved to the Mohyla Memorial in Tachov. In the 1990s, there was a wooden cross with a tablet and a text in Czech and German. It is not known who made the wooden cross, but it was later removed and replaced by the existing wooden cross and a new tablet. A second, metal cross was made in 2011. In the same year, an archaeological examination of former graves along the route of the death march was also carried out. Another reminder of the 37 murdered prisoners is the monument in the village square of Lesná. (See the database entry Monument to the victims of a death march, Lesná.)

Sources

Archives

State Municipal Archive of Tachov, coll. Tachov District National Committee, War Graves 1945–1957, box 2.

Literature

Jiří Nenutil – Michal Rak, Exhumace obětí II. světové války: Předpoklady, východiska, výzkum, Plzeň 2011, pp. 51–76
Michal Rak, Archeologie konliktů 20. století Aeroarcheologie Historie – témata – metody – příklady, Plzeň 2014, pp. 26–28.

Websites

Media

Other

Consultation with Jiří Nenutil, chairman of The Freedom Fighters Association in Tachov.

More photos

Entry Author

Fred Chvátal