Bus tour exploring the history of prisoner-of-war camps and cemeteries
To mark the 85th anniversary of the German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, the Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation invites you to join an excursion to Oerbke / Fallingbostel.
From 1939 onwards, the site was home to one of the largest prisoner-of-war camps of the Second World War, POW base camp XI B Fallingbostel. In the summer of 1941, the „Wehrmacht“ (German armed forces) also established Stalag XI D (321) Oerbke in the immediate vicinity, a camp exclusively for Soviet prisoners of war.
Together, we will visit, amongst other places, Fallingbostel railway station (where the prisoners of war arrived), the former camp site and the Oerbke/Fallingbostel war cemetery. We will explore the history of the camps, learn about the living conditions of the Soviet prisoners, their fate, and how the memory of the victims was dealt with after the end of the war.
We also plan to stop at the administrative building of the unincorporated district of Osterheide, where the district administrator, Andreas Ege, will welcome us and present a small exhibition on the subject.
The excursion will be led by historians Silke Petry and Katja Seybold (Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation).
Organisational notes: The bus will depart from the Bergen-Belsen Memorial. You will be brought back there at the end of the excursion. You may park your car free of charge in the memorial’s car park during this time. Seats on the bus are limited. Please register by 10 July 2026.
The organisers reserve the right to exercise their domiciliary rights and to refuse admission to or exclude from the event any persons who belong to right-wing extremist parties or organisations or who have made or continue to make anti-Semitic, anti-democratic, history-denying, nationalistic, racist or other inhuman statements, attitudes or visible signs.