Soviet War Cemetery Priekule

This war cemetery contains the remains of more than 23,000 Soviet soldiers and officers who died in World War II.

The location itself is not really a typical cemetery. There is a large statue of Mother Russia behind a wall with soldiers in relief. To the left of this is a panel with 1941-1945 and then in Latvian and Russian "For those who fought and died for the fatherland". To the right of the relief, seven soldiers are honored who are recognized (posthumously) as hero of the Soviet Union. Furthermore, it consists of the location of negative walls, each containing 8x17 copper plates on both sides. These plates commemorate approximately 23000 soldiers and officers who fell in the Battle of the Kurzeme (region of Latvia) pocket between late 1944 and May 1945. The name of the fallen is reported, in most cases the year in which they died (1944 or 1945) and in less than half of the cases a year of birth is also mentioned. There are no individual graves here, although the dead would be buried here. In that case it is a mass grave.

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Source

• Text: Kaj Metz & Jörgen Brouwer
• Photos: Jörgen Brouwer