The Arnsberg Forest massacre (also known as the Massacre in Arnsberg Woods) was a series of mass extrajudicial killings of 208 forced labourers and POWs[citation needed] (Ostarbeiter), mainly of Russian and Polish descent,[1][2] by Nazi troops under the command of Hans Kammler[3] from 20 to 23 March 1945.

[2][4] A study by archaeologists in 2019 found a number of different artifacts at the site where the victims were buried in a mass grave, including colourful buttons, shoes, and a Polish dictionary.

The soldiers, intending for the massacre to be revealed to the public, proceeded to organize the entire local German population (civilians and informers) to view the exhumation of the bodies.

The grave's bodies were exhumed the next year and placed in the Fulmecke Cemetery in Meschede, which was also where the remains of the other massacres' victims were reburied.

They were Wolfgang Wetzling, Johann Miesel, Ernst Moritz Klönne, Bernhard Anhalt, Helmut Gaedt, and Heinz Zeuner.

[1][2] A 53 minute documentary on the event, entitled Nazi Killing Fields and directed by Max Neidlinger, was released in 2023.