Gresse Church Chronicle Extract

Gresse Church Chronicle Extract

The pastor describes the burial of prisoners and guards who were shot by low flying RAF aircraft. The pastor officiated at the burial with an English padre.
In the second part he describes damage to the cemetery during a bombardment from the other side of the Elbe.
There is a handwritten annotation '18 April 1945 NB The writer of this was probably Paster Stuwe whose drawings of the occasion are no longer at Gresse. Now the border is open D.Uwe Wieben, I 3 the Heimatmuseum, Boizenburg (Elbe) might be worth a try.'

1945-04-18

One typewritten sheet with handwritten annotations

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MAnkersonR[Ser#-DoB]-180129-77

[inserted] 18 April 1945 [/inserted]

Translation of an excerpt from the church chronicles of Gresse.
("Chronik des Kirchspiels zu Gresse" (Germany, 1945)

LAST DAYS OF THE WAR

In the last days of the war a column of about 1000 English prisoners of war on the march northwards before a front which was constantly giving ground, was attacked by mistake by low-flying English aircraft while halted near Heidekrug.
Thirty fell, among them an American and six German guards. The English were buried in a common grave, half of them that evening, the others the next morning. To carry out that task a working party returned from the column which had been forced to continue the march immediately after the attack.
At the first burial I officiated together with an English padre. At the second burial I officiated alone.
I arranged for the erection of a big cross at the grave with an inscription and I planted roses and pinks on the grave which later on bloomed beautifully.
After 2 1/4 years the bodies were exhumed by the English and – after establishing personal data (in so far as this was possible on the basis of the list which the English padre had given me) – carried away to be buried with many others in a large common cemetery. The six Germans were buried in single graves. These graves too, and others later, were provided with crosses, planted with roses, and separated from each other by box hedges.

BOMBARDMENT

In the last days the road from Boizenburg to Gresse was shelled by the English from the other side of the Elbe with light guns. One shell fell on the cemetery, others on the road in the village, causing two big gaps in the wall and the iron grill in front of the castle. In Schwartow the German defenders lost two soldiers by a "barrelburst", among them a Russian who had been fighting on the German side. They were buried in Gresse, south of the church in front of the Badekow family vault. During the funeral ceremonies twice a shell fell close by on the road, the first just when I was in front of the two graves officiating.

[inserted] [underlined] NB [/underlined] The writer of this was probably Pastor STÜWE whose drawings of the occasion are no longer at Gresse. Now the border is open [indecipherable letters]. UWE WIEBEN, I [indecipherable letters] HEIMATMUSEUM, BOIZENBURG (ELBE) might be worth a trip – [indecipherable letters] [/inserted]