Victoria
Tatura Internment & P.O.W. Camps
Part 1 - why Tatura?; the structure of the camps
Part 2 - daily routine, entertainment and leisure for interned families
Part 3 - the German War Cemetery
The German military cemetery at Tatura was sponsored by the Federal Republic of Germany and was officially consecrated by the German ambassador, Dr. Hans Mühlenfeld, at a ceremony attended by some 1000 people on 16 November 1958.[1]
The cemetery contains the remains of 250 Germans who died in Australia during the two world wars. These are 239 civilian internees and 11 prisoners of war (10 from the army, 1 from the merchant navy) all of whom were brought from other cemeteries in Australia for reburial here. An area of the cemetery was expanded and opened in 1961 for the reburial of German World War I internees.[2]
The entrance gate at the German War Cemetery, Tatura, Victoria.
The German War Cemetery was the first foreign war cemetery in Australia[3] and is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.
Grave markers at the German War Cemetery, Tatura, Victoria.
Each grave is marked by a bronze plaque showing the deceased's name and date of death. The symbol of an iron cross on a plaque signifies the grave of a prisoner-of-war and the latin cross indicates it's the grave of a civilian internee.
The grave of Lance-Corporal Heinz Paul at the German War Cemetery, Tatura, Victoria. He died in December 1942 aged 22.
A monument and memorial plaque at one end of the cemetery record the names of 27 Germans buried elsewhere in Australia (whose graves could not be recovered or identified) and also commemorates 129 Catholic and 45 Protestant missionaries.
The large cross in the German War Cemetery, Tatura, Victoria.
A large memorial plaque at one end of the German War Cemetery, Tatura, Victoria. It honours Germans, including missionaries, who died during the two world wars and who are buried elsewhere in Australia.
This cemetery at Tatura is maintained by Australia's Commonwealth War Graves Commission on behalf of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (a humanitarian organisation in Germany that among other roles promotes the care and maintenance of German war graves).
♦ Notes:
1. Bossence (1969), p.284
2. Bossence (1969), p.284
3. Bossence (1969), p.282
♦ References:
Association of German Teachers of Victoria, Inc. (1999). Tatura Heritage Trail.
Bossence, William Henry. (1969). Tatura and the Shire of Rodney / by William Henry Bossence. Melbourne : Hawthorn Press. pp.265-284
Information plaque at the cemetery.