5. Fallschirmjäger field graves between the Zanddijk and the Tweede Tol in Dordrecht during the Second World War.

Another photograph of the German graves between the Tweede Tol and the Zanddijk. The men buried here are paratroopers. The soldier looking at the graves appears to be a member of the armoured troops. Behind the German soldier on the right, a section of the Wieldrechtse Zeedijk is likely visible. These are the same emergency graves that Bruno Bräuer visited in the previously shown photograph. The grave on the left has a standard M35 helmet and is probably the grave of one of the soldiers who flew in via Waalhaven. The two graves next to it would then belong to Jäger Bruno Jürgensen, killed on the Tongplaat, and Jäger Karl Fischer, killed near Amstelwijck.

The graves were created on Sunday, 12 May 1940, according to the testimony of Lenie de Jong, who lived at the Berkenhof farm during the May days.

She writes about this:
“On that same day we saw a few flat farm wagons passing by on the dike, carrying several bodies of German soldiers. The wagons came from the direction of the Schenkeldijk and travelled westward, pulled by two horses. It turned out that these dead Germans were being buried on a piece of land belonging to my father, which we called ‘de Kes’—a plot that had probably once been a terp, and on which a very old house had stood a few years earlier before my father demolished it. Apparently, the Germans considered this elevated piece of land a suitable burial site and gave their fallen a temporary resting place there. We believe that the remains were exhumed again after about six weeks, and during that time each grave had a cross (with a name and date of birth + date of death).”

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