Peace Network |
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This Rheinwiesenlager is part of four Rheinwiesenlager, which are close to each
other located.
They are:
PWTE-A6 Winzenheim / Bretzenheim;
PWTE-A7 Biebelsheim;
PWTE-A15 Planig;
PWTE-A3 Bad Kreuznach and the Cemetery of Honour in the Lohrer Wald.
May 27, 2023
Between Winzenheim and Bretzenheim, are large fields along a through road, the
Bundesstraße B48 or also called the Naheweinstraße. The former
A6 - Rheinwiesenlager.
There is now a huge monument, with a high cross. Explanations are given on
an information board.
The field with the memorial (Mahnmal) is called the "Feld des Jammers"
(Field of wailing, lamentation, bitter sorrow).
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A3-A6-A7-A8 Rheinwiesenlager in and around Bad Kreuznach |
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A6-Winzenheim-Bretzenheim and A15-Planig are in the middle of the map, Feld de Jammers |
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A6 Winzenheim/Bretzenheim, Feld des Jammers |
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A6 Winzenheim/Bretzenheim, Feld des Jammers |
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A6 Winzenheim/Bretzenheim, Feld des Jammers |
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A6 Winzenheim/Bretzenheim, Feld des Jammers |
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A6 Winzenheim/Bretzenheim, Feld des Jammers |
For all the victims who perished in these encampments, I prayed to God, our Dear Lord and Almighty prayed for redemption for all the deceased soldiers and others who suffered, with the help of Love, Light and Peace.
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A6 Winzenheim/Bretzenheim, Feld des Jammers |
I had just finished my prayer when an couple in their eighties stepped off of
the e-bikes and came and sat next to me on the bench. After an exchange
of a few pleasantries, the woman suddenly told me that her father was there as a
captured soldier, on the "Feld des Jammers" for three years locked up.
He survived. She told me a lot of his woes experienced.
The war lasted nine years for this soldier, including three more
years after surrendering to the Germans in May 1945 in Reims, France. The
man was a soldier and he always had to carry out orders and
obey. There was no choice or there was the bullet.
This couple were happy to tell their stories to me. They were
amazed that I knew so much about this piece of history.
The father had been in Egypt during the war and was also imprisoned in El Alamein.
The man was severely traumatised. He still lived to be 79. Fortunately, he was
still able to share his terrible experiences with his
family.
The cycling couple said they had never before been able to talk about it with
anyone. In Germany, people were silent about this past,
most returned soldiers almost all did. That is why this elderly couple
were so happy that they could vent their hearts to me. And
that with a foreigner, who also knew a lot about it, even about the
unknown RWL past of their own hometown.
The woman told another story in between.
Her father was dragged into the war in 1939. The day I spoke to her, she was
83 years old. A little arithmetic told me that the lady was born in 1939 or
in 1940. Did her father know that he had a daughter or that he had fathered
a child before he left home?
A young man who was at the beginning of his adult life,
had a wife and was starting a family, does not want to get sucked into a war.
He and his wife were building their own future. There is nothing heroic in that,
this is called love, hope and caring. Becoming happy was their goal.
So did the soldier have a daughter after he left home or did he find that out
only nine years later, when he returned home?
Did he miss her those nine years? In any case, he did not see his daughter grow
up the first nine years of her life. He was not able to take care of
her and her mother. The daughter, the old woman who told this, missed her
father all that time. All this uncertainty does not do much good to a small
child.
In all humility, I felt very honoured to have this conversation experience.
It was coincidence that brought us together.