Reese is a hamlet (Bauernschaft) in the Nienburg District (Kreise) of

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

in northwestern

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, between

Steyerberg Steyerberg is a municipality in the district of Nienburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia ...

and the town of Liebenau on the River Aue. It is part of the Liebenau municipality.

History

There is an old

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

cemetery in Reese dating from before 800 A.D., with graves perhaps as early at the First Century, with over 1,000 burials."Gräberfeld der Altsachsen Reese zwischen Steyerberg und Liebenau" ("The Reese Old Saxon Burial between Steyerberg and Liebenau")
Flecken Steyerberg (Steyerberg Municipality). It was excavated beginning in 1953 by the

Lower Saxony State Museum The Lower Saxon State Museum Hanover (german: Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum Hannover, italics=unset, or simply ) is the state museum of Lower Saxony in Hanover, Germany. Situated adjacent to the New Town Hall, the museum comprises the state ...

in Hannover (Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum Hannover). During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

there was a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

camp for

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

soldiers at Reese. Infirm POWs who could no longer work in the forced labor camps of Lower Saxony ( Stalag X-C) were taken to the Reese camp where large numbers died of disease and malnutrition and were buried in mass graves nearby."Kriegsgefangene" ("POWs"
''Wir Wussten Nichts Davon: Nienburger Zeitzeugen berichten über die Jahre 1933 - 1948'', citing Berger, Patricia; Gatter, Frank Thomas and Klusmann-Burmeister, Hans (1991) ''In fremder Erde namenlos begraben – Das Schicksal sowjetischer Kriegsgefangener, Zwangsarbeiterinnen und Zwangsarbeiter in Nienburg 1941 bis 1945'' (Series: Beiträge zur Nienburger Stadtgeschichte, Series A, volume 6) Das Archiv, Nienburg,

Notes

Towns in Lower Saxony {{Nienburg-geo-stub