The preparations made for the defence of Dresden beginning in late 1944 also included numerous provisions made by the city administration. Food stores were established, a ”fortress hospital” was chosen and the Neue Annen Cemetery at Kesseldorfer Straße 29 was established as a ”fortress cemetery” to accommodate the dead anticipated as a result of the city’s defence. The cemetery was thus no longer available for civilian use and burials were prohibited.
At the end of April 1945, the police transported the bodies of 131 victims of the February air raids, recovered nearby, to the Neue Annen Cemetery. This sparked off an administrative battle which lasted several days. The city administration refused to allow the burials and insisted that the bodies be taken away again. The police refused owing to a major fuel shortage. Thus the air-raid victims were finally buried in the graves prepared for the “fallen defenders of the fortress”.

Marked in 2001