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

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

in northwestern

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, between

Steyerberg Steyerberg is a municipality in the district of Nienburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximately 15 km southwest of Nienburg, and 30 km north of Minden Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of Nor ...

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

History

There is an old

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

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 (, or simply ) is the state museum of Lower Saxony in Hanover, Germany. Situated adjacent to the New Town Hall, the museum comprises the state gallery (), featuring paintings and sculptures from the Middle ...

in Hannover (Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum Hannover). During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

there was a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person 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 war for a ...

camp for

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

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