A Cemetery my cousins knew about in Straubing, Lower Bavaria

[Mira]

Here is some information about the church, where I could only go as far as the locked wrought iron gate after opening the door. Also info about the graveyard church and graveyard date back to the second half of the 12th century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Peter%27s_Church,_Straubing

Now to my photos. They will show in the last two images that there was not only the activity dating back to the 12th century and beyond, but also the cemetery was used in the National Socialist times in spots and has one of their mass graves. Looking almost innocuously hidden and sneaked in.

I apologize for the many photos. I was overwhelmed being there.



























The mass grave: “Here rest 300 victims of the Nationalist Socialist Regime”

If you liked the photos, and if you feel like kicking back a few minutes you may want to take a tour of the cemetery filmed and set to music by someone I found on the internet. Seeing it made me remember what I felt like to wander those hallowed grounds.

[Solly Mack]

1. Marvelous!

[catrose]

2. The mass grave looks Jewish, with all the little stones on top

Or is that also a local tradition?

Someone remembers anyway.

[Mira]

3. I think it is a world wide tradition

I do it, always have.

[catrose]

4. I wondered

I learned it as a specifically Jewish custom. On certain days, you put stones on the headstones.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. I can only feebly imagine the energy in that place.

Jaw dropping.

THANK you for sharing this.

[Mira]

7. I am in awe still

and after sitting back and experiencing the video I posted, and saving it, I can go back there and feel that awe all over again. I had so many overwhelming experiences, most days more than one. But that cemetery put me seriously face to face with the weight of our history, our transience, and the weight of recent German horrors.

[pansypoo53219]

6. i love old cemeteries. visted dansih cemeteries. no old stones around the 1700's church. DUH.

rich people entombed inside. older stones stacked against a fence. some entombed around the arhus cathedral.

[fierywoman]

8. Wow Mira, thanks once again: very moving, especially the "300 Opfer" ...

[Mira]

9. I was conflicted

I was conflicted to include it. Yet it would be so wrong not to.
This trip I was put face palm front and center with a lot of the German acknowledgement of the recent history. It made me glad that attitudes have changed monumentally since I left Germany for America in 1964. One of the reasons I left was that at that time, 50 years ago, Germany was glossing over their recent horrifying past and I could not abide by it.

[fierywoman]

10. You were right to include it. (Yeah, that would be hard.)

[GeoWilliam750]

11. Nicely done photos

However, I am a bit puzzled by the apparent absence of recent graves (unless the ones with what appear to be wrought iron crosses are recent) in either your photos or in the video, and it seems rather well maintained for what appears to be such an old graveyard. Is this cemetery protected for some reason, because as I understand it, most graves in Germany are effectively leased for 20-25 years?

[Squinch]

12. Amazing, Mira, once again. I do love your photos.

Don't you just love the internet? I explored a thirteenth century German church before coffee this Saturday morning - but I do have to say the cackle in the soundtrack when they were showing the charnel house did freak me out!

As always, thank you so much! Safe travels and keep them coming!

[mnhtnbb]

13. We are only here for a minute...

aren't we? What will we leave?

What a marvelous collection of photos. Thanks for sharing them.

[OldEurope]

14. Sent you a second one. Did you recieve it? /NT