View source for Ysselsteyn German war cemetery

{{Short description|Cemetery in Venray, Netherlands}}
{{Infobox military memorial
| name                   = Ysselsteyn war cemetery
| body                   = [[German War Graves Commission]]<br />''Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge''.
| image                  = [[File:CemeteryYsselsteyn2.jpg|250px]]
| caption                = Cemetery Ysselsteyn
| use_dates              = 1939–1945
| established            = 1946
| designer               = 
| coordinates            = {{Coordinates|51|28|08|N|5|53|27|E|type:landmark_region:NL|display=inline,title}}
| nearest_town           = [[Venray]], Netherlands
| total                  = 31,813
| unknowns               = appr. 4,000
| commemorated           = 
| by_country             = [[Germany]] and Nazi [[Hiwis]]; [[Austria]], [[Belarus]], [[Belgium]], [[Croatia]], [[Czechoslovakia]], [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]], [[Hungary]], [[the Netherlands]], [[Poland]], [[Romania]],  
| by_war                 = World War I (87); World War II (31,000); postwar appr. 500
| source                 = 
}}

'''Ysselsteyn German War Cemetery''' is a military cemetery interring casualties of the First and Second World Wars. It contains over 31,000 dead from around 25 countries, including Wehrmacht and SS-men and Dutch [[war criminals]]. This cemetery is located in the village of [[Ysselsteyn]] in the [[municipality]] of [[Venray]] in [[Limburg (Netherlands)|Limburg]], Netherlands, and is {{convert|32|km|mi|abbr=on}} east of [[Eindhoven]]. Ysselsteyn is the largest Second World War German cemetery and is the only Nazi-German cemetery in the Netherlands.<ref>{{cite web|title=Ysselsteyn Cemetery|url=http://www.volksbund.de/kriegsgraeberstaetten.html?stadt=1087|access-date=31 March 2012|publisher=German War Graves Commission}}</ref> Following the war, the Nazi soldiers were reburied in the cemetery. The deceased include Germans, Austrians, Dutch, Poles, Russians and many who fought on the side of Nazi Germany or supported them in non-military roles.

== World War I and II burials ==
Most burials are soldiers killed during the German occupation from May 1940 to May 1945 in [[the Netherlands]]. Around 250 of the dead (Nazi-German [[Wehrmacht]] and [[SS]], as well as collaborating Dutch), were killed by the [[Dutch resistance]]. Around 3,000 of the burials were soldiers detailed to occupation duties, including [[Roundup (history)|razzias]], [[deportation]]s, illegal incarceration, Jew-hunting, and other [[war crime]]s.  250 more deaths ([[Wehrmacht]]) are from the [[Battle of the Bulge]] in the [[Ardennes]] and [[Hürtgenwald]] that were initially interred next to the [[Netherlands American Cemetery]] in [[Margraten]].

In a circle near the entrance lie 87 German soldiers who died in [[World War I]] and whose bodies floated to the Netherlands down rivers, mainly the [[Meuse (river)|Meuse]]. The Netherlands remained neutral during the First World War.

Over 5,000 unknown burials are located in the cemetery and were marked incorrectly as "Ein Deutscher Soldat" (A German Soldier).

After World War II, all German fatalities were buried there. In 1976 administration was transferred to the [[German War Graves Commission]] (''Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge''). The designation as a German burial ground is disputed as many  buried there were non-Germans serving in the German armed forces, comprising 25 nationalities. Dutch, Belgian, Russian, Czech, and many tens of so-called "Volksdeutsche" from Poland, the Danzig Free State, Luxemburg, Slovakia, and even [[Kazakhstan]] and [[Azerbaijan]] may also be buried there.

== Architecture ==
The cemetery covers approximately {{convert|28|ha|acre|abbr=on}}. Most burials are in individual graves marked by a grey concrete cross that includes (where known) the name, rank, and dates of birth and death. A tall cross stands in the central memorial plaza. Roads extending right and left from the plaza contain a [[carillon]] and common graves.

A memorial stone honors Captain Johan Lodewijk Timmermans, a Dutchman who served as manager of the cemetery from 1948 to 1976 on behalf of the Dutch government. Upon his death, his ashes were scattered at the cemetery per his request.

== Protests ==
From the 1960s, protests were lodged against the German dead and the cemetery. The protests were revived in 2013, when the Dutch Anti-Fascists' League AFVN discovered that since the year 2000, the German ambassador had been holding yearly commemorations there.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/german-ambassador-to-netherlands-to-visit-graves-of-ss-soldiers/|title = German ambassador to the Netherlands to visit graves of SS soldiers|website = [[The Times of Israel]]}}</ref> In 2020, the AFVN started a petition<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.krapuul.nl/nieuws/2751027/herdenken-nazis-en-ssers-ysselsteyn-onaanvaardbaar/ |title=Herdenken nazi’s en SS’ers Ysselsteyn onaanvaardbaar – Krapuul |website=www.krapuul.nl |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201011012604/https://www.krapuul.nl/nieuws/2751027/herdenken-nazis-en-ssers-ysselsteyn-onaanvaardbaar/ |archive-date=2020-10-11}} </ref> against the visits of the ambassador with Dutch and German Jews joining the effort,<ref>{{Cite web|title='German officials should not memorialize those who fought for the Nazi regime'|url=https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/german-ambassador-to-netherlands-to-visit-graves-of-nazis-381713|access-date=2021-07-27|website=The Jerusalem Post {{!}} JPost.com|language=en-US}}</ref> along with [[Beate Klarsfeld]] and the management of the former [[Dachau concentration camp]]. A petition was launched to end the honouring and was subscribed by a.o. the board of the Dachau Museum and Concentration camp, leading Jewish figures such as the Dutch chief rabbi [[Binyomin Jacobs]]. The ambassador ended the practice.

In 2020, the American Ambassador to the Netherlands visited the cemetery and tweeted photos of the graves.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Haltiwanger|first=John|title=Trump's ambassador to the Netherlands tweets photo of Nazi cemetery, calling it a 'terrible reminder' of the cost of war|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-ambassador-to-the-netherlands-tweets-photo-of-nazi-cemetery-2020-7|access-date=2021-07-27|website=Business Insider|language=en-US}}</ref>

== Neo-Nazis ==
The cemetery gets irregular visits from [[Neo-Nazism|Neo-Nazis]]. In November 2020, a Belgian woman placed flowers on the grave of the first Dutch SS-volunteer Willem Heubel.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.1limburg.nl/ophef-over-bloemen-bij-graf-sser-ysselsteyn|title = Ophef in België: Vlaamse politica legt bloemen bij graf SS'er Ysselsteyn|date = 13 November 2020}}</ref>

== Notable dead ==
Among the most notable dead in the cemetery are:

*[[Julius Dettmann]] (23 Jan 1894 – 24 July 1945), a German SS-officer who had [[Anne Frank]], her family and friends deported from their hiding place in [[Amsterdam]]

== Gallery ==
<gallery widths=250px heights=200px>
Ijes 004.JPG
CemeteryYsselsteyn5.jpg
CemeteryYsselsteyn2.jpg
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Ysselsteyn War Cemetery 01.jpg
Yss (1 of 1).jpg
Yss2 (1 of 1).jpg
</gallery>

== Films ==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRzai2vHBj8 CEFRG: ''Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof Ysselsteyn''] at YouTube.
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=829Z4NgO6ao Michael Mustermann: ''Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof Kriegsgräberstätte Ysselsteyn, Niederlande''] at Youtube.
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyBXPnXdQ50 Longa Via Est: ''Duitse Oorlogsbegraafplaats Ysselsteyn (German war cemetery Ysselsteyn)''] at YouTube.
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCsn4f2DKs8 Na de bevrijding WO2: ''75 jaar vrijheid: oorlogsbegraafplaats Ysselsteyn''] at Youtube.
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcLFhPU3A6k Wolffman325: ''Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof Ysselsteyn Niederlande. Duitse Militaire begraafplaats''] at YouTube.
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2JS7VI0xeU Omroep Venray: Hans Sakkers: ''Lezing Duitse Militaire Begraafplaats Ysselsteyn''] at YouTube.
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcQoTK5cTS8 The Battlefield Explorer: ''German War Cemetery Ysselsteyn – Over 30,000 Graves''] at YouTube.

== See also ==
* [[World War II memorials and cemeteries in the Netherlands]]
* [[Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Ysselsteyn War Cemetery}}
* [http://www.volksbund.de/kriegsgraeberstaette/ysselsteyn.html Ysselsteyn German war cemetery (Deutsche Kriegsgräberstätte Ysselsteyn) at ''Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge''] {{in lang|de}}
* [http://verwehte-spuren.de.tl/Ysselsteyn.htm Ysselsteyn German war cemetery (Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof Ysselsteyn)] {{in lang|de}}
* [http://en.tracesofwar.com/article/37/Duitse-Oorlogsbegraafplaats-Ysselsteyn.htm Ysselsteyn German war cemetery at tracesofwar]
* [http://www.zuidfront-holland1940.nl/index.php?page=begraafplaats-ijsselsteijn Stichting Kennispunt Mei 1940 – German war cemetery IJsselsteijn]
* [http://www.joc-ysselsteyn.com/ Youth Meeting Centre Ysselsteyn (Internationale Jugendbegegnungs- und Bildungsstätte Ysselsteyn)]

{{Second World War military cemeteries in the Netherlands}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1940s architecture]]
[[Category:Cemeteries in Limburg (Netherlands)]]
[[Category:Cemeteries in the Netherlands]]
[[Category:German War Graves Commission]]
[[Category:Venray]]
[[Category:World War I memorials]]
[[Category:World War II cemeteries in the Netherlands]]