• Gantenwald Children's Cemetery
From 1944, a farmhouse in the Gantenwald settlement (in the administrative district of Schwäbisch-Hall) served as a birthing centre for Eastern European forced labourers. Many of the children who were born here died within a few months due to insufficient care. A memorial stone at the Gantenwald Children's Cemetery was set up in their honour.
Image: Bühlerzell, 2006, Stone plates bearing the names of the children buried on the Gantenwald cemetery, Gemeinde Bühlerzell, Franz Rechtenbacher
Bühlerzell, 2006, Stone plates bearing the names of the children buried on the Gantenwald cemetery, Gemeinde Bühlerzell, Franz Rechtenbacher
In order to sustain the arms industry of the »Third Reich«, many factories deployed female workers. Not only German women began replacing male workers: National Socialists forced thousands of women from the occupied countries to work in arms factories from 1941 on. Until 1942, female forced labourers from Eastern Europe were deported to their home countries if they became pregnant. From 1943 on, several »nursing homes for the children of foreigners« were set up in the German Reich upon orders of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler and the General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment, Fritz Saukel. Shortly after birth, the children were taken away from their mothers and handed over to such facilities. In this way the mothers could be deployed in forced labour soon after they had given birth - usually this occurred after 8 to 10 days. At first, these infant collection camps were supposed to be »nursing and child care facilities«. From 1944 on, however, the women also had to give birth there in the hope of thus concealing their fate from the public. The personnel of most of the »nursing homes for the children of foreigners« intentionally mistreated the children, giving them too little nutrition and care in order to »reduce« the offspring of foreign women.
In 1943, National Socialist authorities established a »nursing home for the children of foreigners« in a farmhouse in the Gantenwald settlement. Until 1945, about 80 babies and infants were placed here. Many of them had been born to Polish, Ukrainian or Russian forced labourers.
Image: Bühlerzell, 2006, Stone plates bearing the names of the children buried on the Gantenwald cemetery, Gemeinde Bühlerzell, Franz Rechtenbacher
Bühlerzell, 2006, Stone plates bearing the names of the children buried on the Gantenwald cemetery, Gemeinde Bühlerzell, Franz Rechtenbacher
Due to insufficient nutrition, care and medical supplies, about 24 infants died at Gantenwald during their first year of life. 19 of them were buried in a cemetery which was specially set up in the vicinity of the »nursing home for the children of foreigners«. 18-year-old Eugenia Rossamaha from Russia died giving birth to her son. She too was buried in the Gantenwald Children's Cemetery.
Image: Place and date unknown, Eugenia Rossamaha, a mother who died during childbirth in Gantenwald, Sammlung der KZ-Gedenkstätte SHA-Hessental
Place and date unknown, Eugenia Rossamaha, a mother who died during childbirth in Gantenwald, Sammlung der KZ-Gedenkstätte SHA-Hessental

Image: Bühlerzell, 2012, Plaque on the memorial stone, Ulrich Erhard
Bühlerzell, 2012, Plaque on the memorial stone, Ulrich Erhard
The Bühlerzell community had the small cemetery remodelled in 1984 in cooperation with the district planning office. Shortly afterwards, a memorial stone and sculpture were set up upon initiative of the Schwäbisch-Hall district administration. The Bühlerzell community tends the graves.
Image: Bühlerzell, 2006, Gantenwald cemetery, in the background is the former birthing home, Gemeinde Bühlerzell, Franz Rechtenbacher
Bühlerzell, 2006, Gantenwald cemetery, in the background is the former birthing home, Gemeinde Bühlerzell, Franz Rechtenbacher

Image: Bühlerzell, 2012, Memorial stone in the children's cemetery, Ulrich Erhard
Bühlerzell, 2012, Memorial stone in the children's cemetery, Ulrich Erhard
Name
Kinderfriedhof Gantenwald
Phone
+49 (0)7974 939 00
Fax
+49 (0)7974 939 022
Web
https://www.buehlerzell.de/de/freizeit-gaeste/gedenkstaetten
E-Mail
info@buehlerzell.de
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