34Memorial Stone in the Webicht

A memorial stone on the road to Tiefurt commemorates the massacre of 149 prisoners by the
Weimar Gestapo on April 5, 1945, shortly before the surrender of Weimar to the American troops without a fight. The shootings themselves took place a few hundred meters away in the Webicht forest. Under the command of Senior Government Councillor and SS-Obersturmbannführer Hans-Helmut Wolff, the Gestapo ordered the dissolution of the Weimar office. In the days before, the files had already been burned in the courtyard of the Marstall building so as not to provide the Allies with any evidence. From the Gestapo prison in the Marstall and the district court prison, the officers selected those prisoners who, according to a list compiled by the senior public prosecutor, were to expect a judicial death sentence. They added prisoners selected on their own authority
and then drove them in the direction of Webicht. Detective superintendent and SS-Obersturmführer Felix Ritter, together with ten other officers, executed the prisoners, including seven women, and buried them in makeshift bomb craters. The Weimar Gestapo then embarked on an "orderly retreat" to Bohemia. On the way, they shot another 13 people, military and civilians, escaped forced laborers and prisoners. When the dead were exhumed in July 1945, 43 people could still be identified by name.
The victims were cremated in July 1945 and buried in a grave field at Weimar's main cemetery in August 1946. The memorial stone was inaugurated on August 3, 1963 in Webicht and later moved to Tiefurter Allee near the Tiefurt town entrance sign.