The Netherlands / Biography
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Ignati Feodotovich Dementyev was brought into the world around 1 January 1908 in the village Chaadayevka, in what is now the province of Penza. Before the war Ignati, his wife Tatyana Alexandrovna and their children lived in the town of Ishimbay in the republic of Bashkortostan. Their address was Kommunarov Street 1, apartment 2. He worked as a bookkeeper.
After the German invasion of 22 June 1941 Ignati was quickly drafted. Sergeant Dementyev was attached to the staff of his unit as a clerk.
On 5 February 1943 in the vicinity of Voronezh he was captured by the Germans and transferred to a camp in the Ruhr Area, where he was put to work. Due to the awful conditions Ignati fell ill. After having been liberated by the American army in April 1945 he was admitted to a hospital in Senne. There he died of tuberculosis on 10 May 1945.
The Americans did not want to bury Allied soldiers on hostile soil and brought his remains to the closest military cemetery outside of Germany. That was in Margraten, in the Dutch southern province of Limburg. He was buried on 15 May. After the construction of the Soviet War Cemetery in Leusden this is where he found his last resting place. His name is on gravestone # 832.
In March 2011 researcher Remco Reiding managed to trace two of his daughters. They were told that their father was no longer missing in action but lay buried in Leusden. Unfortunately it was physically impossible for them to undertake the trip to the Netherlands.
Link: www.sovjet-ereveld.nl