Solemn ceremony

Denied graves by Nazis, resistance fighters finally buried

Executed for standing up against Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship and then denied graves so as not to become a rallying point for others, the partial remains of 300 Nazi resistance fighters were laid to rest Monday in a solemn ceremony in a downtown Berlin cemetery.

The small wooden box lowered into the square granite-edged plot included remains of Erika von Brockdorff, who was beheaded in the Nazis’ notorious Ploetzensee Prison on May 13, 1943 — exactly 76 years ago — for her involvement in the famous Red Orchestra resistance movement.

‘‘I’m just happy that there is now this place,’’ reflected her daughter, 81-year-old Saskia von Brockdorff, after sprinkling handfuls of earth into the grave. ‘‘We always drove with my sons to Ploetzensee, but that is really a place of execution even if it is not what it was then, and I’m glad I can come here now.’’