
WWII Memorial @ Gottesacker der Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine - Neugnadenfeld, Germany
Posted by:
dreamhummie
N 52° 36.712 E 006° 58.962
32U E 363414 N 5831006
WWII Memorial at God's Acre of the Moravian Brethren Community located at Emslandstraße in Neugnadenfeld, Germany.
Waymark Code: WM189MF
Location: Niedersachsen, Germany
Date Posted: 06/24/2023
Views: 0
In the cemetery, opposite the entrance, there is a wooden cross at the edge.
In front of it is a stone slab measuring 1 by 2 meters.
Engraved on the stone slab is the following text:
"1939-1945
OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS WHO DIED IN THE WAR AND THROUGH ITS AFTERMATH.
WE LIVE OR DIE WE BELONG TO THE LORD
ROMANS 14:8"
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"The Moravian Church of the Brethren:
On the ground of the former prisoner of war camp "Alexisdorf" a village with today about 700 inhabitants was founded here in 1946. The surroundings with the moor and heath areas are especially inviting for cycling and walking. About 1/3 of the inhabitants of Neugnadenfeld today belong to the Brüdergemeinde. It goes back to the Reformation in Bohemia in the 15th century and was influenced by the renewal at the beginning of the 18th century under the leadership of Count Zinzendorf in Herrnhut (Upper Lusatia).
Today, 24 independent provinces with about 1.2 million members belong to the Brüdergemeine worldwide.
The Brüdergemeine Neugnadenfeld was founded in 1946 by the settlement of refugees after the Second World War in the former prisoner of war camp Alexisdorf. For more details see the page (
visit link) "Camp Barracks Association"."
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There website (
visit link) reads:
"The name "God's Acre" expresses the hope that something will remain and grow even after the physical death of each person.
All community members are buried in the order in which they died. There are no family gravesites. The unadorned gravestones of a uniform size symbolize the equality of all people in life and death among themselves and before God.
The God's Acre is inseparably connected with the life of the Brethren community. The congregation gathers here not only at funerals, but also every year on Easter morning we celebrate Easter in communion with our brothers and sisters who have already "gone home". For this purpose, the congregation and the brass choir move together from the church hall to the churchyard at sunrise."