Wickrathberg

Wickrathberg
Borough of Mönchengladbach
Monument to the 1945 German prisoner of war camp in Wickrathberg.
Location of Wickrathberg in Mönchengladbach
Wickrathberg Show map of Germany Wickrathberg Show map of North Rhine-Westphalia
Coordinates: 51°7′N 06°25′E / 51.117°N 6.417°E / 51.117; 6.417
Country	Germany
State	North Rhine-Westphalia
Admin. region	Düsseldorf
District	Urban district
City	Mönchengladbach
Area
• Total	3.52 km2 (1.36 sq mi)
Population  (2022-12-31)[1]
• Total	2,185
• Density	620/km2 (1,600/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes	41189
Dialling codes	02161, 02166

Wickrathberg is a borough of the German city Mönchengladbach, located in the west of North Rhine-Westphalia. The river Niers flows through the village.

The village belonged to the manor of Wickrath in the Middle Ages and early modern times.

An important Jewish community existed in Wickrathberg since before 1704. There was a synagogue, a school and a Jewish cemetery in neighboring Wanlo. The Wickrathberg synagogue was destroyed during the Kristallnacht in November 1938. Only a memorial plaque remains in the pavement of Berger Dorfstraße. In the following years, the Jewish citizens were arrested and deported to concentration camps. By 1942, the 250-year-old Wickrathberg Jewish community had ceased to exist.^[2]

In 1945, after the end of the Second World War, the American army built a large temporary prisoner of war camp in the triangle between Güdderath, Hochneukirch and Wickrathberg, one of the so-called "Rheinwiesenlager". It held between 120,000 and 150,000 German prisoners of war from April to September 1945 in the open air.^[3]

• Hilde Sherman (1923–2011), Jewish woman who survived the Holocaust.
• Wolfgang Lüderitz (1926–2012), composer.