At the municipal cemetery of the village of Zolder, Limburg province, there are four Soviet graves. The burial ground is a common lawn with one gravestone fixed in the middle of the site. The vertical gravestone is made of gray granite with an inscription in Flemish in bronze letters:

 “Monument to the ‘Unknown Russians’. In memory of Russian prisoners of the World War II 1940–1945” (GEDENKSTEEN “ONBEKENDE RUSSEN” TER NAGEDACHTENIS VAN DE RUSSISCHE KRIJGSGEVANGENEN VAN WERELDOORLOG II 1940–1945).

The monument was erected in 2004 by the city administration of Heusden-Zolder municipality. 

The data of the local archive allow us to say that the following persons are buried at the cemetery:

The burial was discovered in August 2011.

Biography

Sumkov Petr Ivanovich

Born 1913, native of the village of Karmolino, Shchelkovsky district, Moscow region. Lived in Stavropol Territory, city of Voroshilovsk. Career officer, in the ranks of the red army since 1932. Last post – the platoon commander of sanitary chemical defense of health support battalion No. 332 of rifle division No. 270, military doctor of 3rd rank. Captured on 25.05.1942. Sent to a labor camp in the Limburg province (Belgium). Worked as a camp doctor. Died on 19.02.1943 in St. Franziskus Hospital of Heusden from tuberculosis.

An excerpt from the book of Jean Put “Russian prisoners of war in Limburg in 1942–1945” (Jean Put “Russische Krijgsgevangenen in Limburg 1942–1945”):

“Albert Leenders recalls: “This man (Petr Sumkov) was a Russian doctor, and spoke good Dutch. In one of his last days, he asked me to write a letter to his wife and children after the war, gave me their address and a note that he wanted to send them. I remembered everything well, but due to circumstances I lost everything and could not fulfill his will, for which I am very ashamed.”

All Albert’s efforts to find his comrade’s family after the war led to nothing.

After the death of the Russian doctor, he organized a fundraiser “for the erection of a monument at the grave of a Russian prisoner of war who died in the hospital.” The benefactors included engineers, workers, his comrades, hospital staff. The total of 950 Belgian francs were collected.”

Special thanks to the authorities of Heusden-Zolder and Mr Rik Lemmens in person.

The Embassy thanks the authorities of Heusden-Zolder and Mr Rik Lemmens in person for the information provided.

Annual memorial ceremonies

2023

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2019

2018

2014

2013

2012