During World War I, there was a prisoner-of-war camp on the Keilsberg in Kassel-Wehlheiden. Thousands of prisoners from the Entente countries were confined there under miserable conditions. Hundreds died, especially during a typhus epidemic that swept through the camp in the spring of 1915.
Today, two war cemeteries commemorate the victims: a British one and a tsarist Russian one. As part of a tour with the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V., we approach this dark chapter of Kassel’s city history.
We explore questions such as why the Keilsberg camp became a place of suffering for its inmates and what the two war cemeteries standing in its place today can tell us about the culture of remembrance and international understanding.