Some kilometers‘ distance from the Camp site, the Cemetary with the adjacent Memorial can be found. The Soviet Forces did build just after the war the monument depicted at the right with the following inscription: „Here rest 46000 Russian soldiers and officers, tortured to death in Nazi captivity“ In 1956, this monument was blown up, among others because the German authorirties did estimate the number of 46000 dead too high. A former prisoner commented, with authority: „The one who provides numbers with moral power, in so far as, if the lower they are, the more the offenders are exonerated, the gravity of the deed is lessened, kills the victims a second time, by simply doubting their existence, as if they never had lived.“

Because of many documents becoming lost during the chaos of liberation and the time after, it’s very difficult to determinate the number of prisoners dying in Sandbostel camp. A commission installed by the District Authorities in 1949/50 did establish a death toll of 8000, maximum 8500, Soviet soldiers. The real number is certainly higher. According to a statement from a POW, who was a German officer’s interpreter, even only in Winter 1941/42, 35000 Soviet prisoners did die. The pictures benetah show the mass graves.