After the air raids of 13, 14 and 15 February 1945, it proved to be exceedingly difficult to recover the dead bodies in the landscape of rubble extending over several square kilometres of the city. Nonetheless, 7,500 bodies were delivered to the two specified cemeteries in the first week. As the lack of transportation made it more and more difficult to recover the bodies, Dresden’s chief of police decided to have them collected, registered, and cremated at the Altmarkt, after discussing the option with the district leadership of the NSDAP and the municipal authorities.
For two weeks, the southern part of the cordoned-off square was a crematorium. Horse-drawn carts brought the dead to the Altmarkt, where officials of the Criminal Investigation Department carefully registered and – where possible – identified them. 6,865 victims of the bombing had been cremated here by 5 March 1945. By that time the recovery of corpses in the city centre was largely completed. Approximately ten cubic metres of ash were taken to the Heide Cemetery and consigned to a mass grave.

Marked in 2001