Hřbitov Horní Bříza

Hřbitov Horní Bříza is the active municipal cemetery of Horní Bříza, a small town in the Plzeň-sever district of the Czech Republic, located on the edge of a forest along the road to the neighboring village of Třemošná. Beyond its everyday role as a burial ground, the cemetery is best known for a monument to 35 victims of a 1945 death march.

Where is the cemetery located?

The cemetery covers 4,168 square metres of wooded ground beside the road connecting Horní Bříza and Třemošná (coordinates 49°50'3.9"N, 13°22'6.3"E). It belongs to the town of Horní Bříza, which maintains the grounds; a cemetery regulation notice and caretaker contact details are posted at the entrance, and the perimeter combines an original boundary wall with newer sections added later.

What features are on the grounds?

Alongside traditional grave plots and newer burial sections, the cemetery holds a columbarium, a former mortuary building, an entrance gate, a central cross, and a water tank used for grave maintenance. The layout reflects a typical Czech rural cemetery that has been gradually modernized over the decades rather than redesigned from scratch.

What happened here in April 1945?

The cemetery's most significant historical feature is the mass grave and monument to 35 prisoners from a transport out of the Flossenbürg concentration camp, tortured to death in Horní Bříza on 24 April 1945 during what is known as a death march – the forced evacuation of camp prisoners on foot in the final weeks of the Second World War. The monument is faced with ceramic tiles, a nod to the town's kaolin and ceramics industry, and topped with a large sculpture of a prisoner figure. Its inscription reads: "Lidé bděte! Odkaz zde pohřbených 35 obětí pochodu smrti z Flossenbürgu, umučených 24. 4. 1945 v H. Bříze" ("People, be vigilant! The legacy of the 35 victims of the death march from Flossenbürg, tortured to death here on 24 April 1945"). A local museum worker has suggested the real toll may have reached 38 victims – 19 men and 19 women – even though the monument records 35.

Are there other memorials to these events in town?

Yes. A separate monument stands on the town square, dedicated to the victims of both world wars and the 1938–1945 occupation. It also names a different group: 15 women and 20 men of unidentified names and nationality who died at the local railway station between 21 and 23 April 1945, a few days before the killings commemorated at the cemetery. No plaque marks the railway station itself.

Frequently asked questions

Is the cemetery in Horní Bříza still in use? Yes. It remains an active burial ground maintained by the town rather than an abandoned site.

How many death-march victims are buried at the cemetery? The monument names 35 victims of the Flossenbürg transport killed on 24 April 1945, though some sources put the actual number as high as 38.

Is there a chapel on the cemetery grounds? No chapel is documented within the cemetery itself – only a former mortuary building survives there. The town's known Baroque chapel stands on the main square, not at the cemetery.

How do you get to the cemetery? It sits beside the road linking Horní Bříza and Třemošná, on the edge of the forest a short distance from the town centre.