The evening before, Henrik read somewhere about a WWII lecture at the Russian cemetery in Allinge. We thought it sounded interesting, and decided to go. The lecture was going to be in the afternoon, and we drove for lunch to Gudhjem, a charming town on the northwest coast of Bornholm:
Henrik didn’t really want to go the the smoke house (you see, he doesn’t understand you must eat at smoke houses when on Bornholm – you hardly find any better!), and we settled for a cafĂ© where I could get hot smoked salmon.
There was this funny sign in the café (they did excellent coffee, hot chocolate and handmade chocolate, too):
And so I got my hot smoked fat and rich in flavour salmon, and Henrik – his boring deep fried thin tasteless plaice:
After lunch, we went for a lazy stroll in Gudhjem. The white house on the left was so cute, I had to photograph it! The owner went out and told us, it was probably the most photographed house in Gudhjem – all tourists stopped by. We had a good chat about his beautiful house:
It was time to find the Russian cemetery, where we waited for the guide. We thought we would be the only interested ones, but around 20-25 people met up – it was amazing.
We were told the facts and stories mostly in connection with the Soviet Red Army staying on Bornholm from May 1945 till April 1946. The ending of the WWII was a bit different for Bornholm than the rest of Denmark. The British liberation troops never came; Gerhard von Kamptz, the German Commander on Bornholm, refused to resurrect to the Russian troops – and they occupied the island.
The lecturer was very good – he explained us the situation from different points of view: German, Danish, Russian. We began from the Russian cemetery:
Then moved to a grave of a young Danish boy who was shot dead by the Nazis, because he was a member of the freedom movement organisation in occupied Denmark – but had never been on any mission!
And we finished up by the memorial to the German people who died on Bornholm:
There were stories about many people and situations; it was really interesting – we recommend!
In the evening, Henrik and I went to “our” Hammerhavn beach to enjoy the marvellous sunset.
We climbed high up the steep cliffs, and were watching the waves breaking down the shore 30 metres beneath:
We also talked about different lives and fates, and how happy we are not to experience a war in our time…
