Commemoration of the surrender without a fight and stele for forced labour

On Sunday, 30 March at 3 p.m., the Beckum Heritage and History Association will hand over a memorial stele to forced labour to the town of Beckum. The stele, designed by Paul Tönnißen, will be erected on Weststraße near the Sparkasse bank, as a large camp for Eastern labourers was once located here. Reinhold Sudbrock will read from his book about forced labour and prisoners of war in Beckum. The memorial stele is intended as a reminder for the future on the 80th anniversary of the end of the war.

The town of Beckum is commemorating the surrender of the town to the Allies without a fight 80 years ago with a memorial service on the market square on Tuesday, 1 April, starting at 5 pm. It was thanks to Dr Paul Rosenbaum and Rudolf Dunker that Beckum was handed over to the advancing superior forces without any fighting on the Easter weekend of 1945, shortly before the planned attack by American troops. Around 15,000 Beckum residents were in the town at the time. A bombardment of the city would therefore not only have caused great destruction, but would also have cost many lives. Excerpts from the correspondence between Dr Paul Rosenbaum and Rudolf Dunker will also be read out at the memorial service in front of the historic town hall, vividly depicting Beckum's last hours until the premature end of the war. At the end of the event, pupils from several Beckum schools will assemble a dove of peace as a jigsaw puzzle. The peace symbol will then be permanently installed in the auditorium of the adult education centre.

In addition, there will be a small special exhibition on the last hours of the war in Beckum in the old classroom of the town museum from 1 to 25 April. Excerpts from the correspondence between Dr Paul Rosenbaum and Rudolf Dunker can then be viewed, as can a BBC documentary film called "A little German town", which was shot in Beckum in 1985. The film uses the example of a small German town to show everyday life and the nature of National Socialism. The exhibition is accessible during the normal opening hours of the town museum.

On 1 April at 7 pm, the Heimat- und Geschichtsverein, the Filou cultural initiative and the Berlin-based "vajswerk" invite you to a research theatre project at the Stadttheater. In the play "Maikäfer flug!", people who experienced the war and the end of the war in Beckum as children will have their say.

Interested parties are welcome at all events. Admission is free.