This year's Father / Son camping activity was at the American Military Cemetery in Luxembourg (same place as
last year). If you remember my post from
two years ago, you might recall that I do not particularly enjoy camping. It rained hard as we were driving there so I was expecting a sloppy mess upon arrival. I was not disappointed -- there was mud everywhere...
We missed the 9PM devotional meeting because it was getting dark and I still hadn't been able to get the tent up. Eventually the tent did go up (I had lots of help). Never again. I am selling that tent and buying a new one.
On Saturday morning we walked through the cemetery after breakfast.
As I looked at the names of people I did not know, questions flooded my mind: How did you die? What kind of person were you?
After we packed up our things, we drove to the nearby Sandweiler German war cemetery. The German War Graves Commission (Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge) maintains 825 military cemeteries in 45 countries. The cemetery at Sandweiler contains the graves of 10,913 German servicemen from the Battle of the Bulge in winter 1944 and spring 1945. Of these, 5,599 were buried by the Americans during the war. After the war, 5,286 servicemen were moved to Sandweiler from 150 different cemeteries throughout Luxembourg. They had mostly lain in mass graves for which incomplete records were available. The German War Graves Commission subsequently worked to identify as many of them as possible.
More questions about people I never met: Did you support the German war effort? Were you in the army because you were forced to be there? Were you a member of the
German resistance movement?
It was muddy when I was there today too, perhaps it always is... lawn aeration is great for the grass but leaves mud in my shoes every time. Fantastic photos and compositions Paul! I wish I had some sunlight today for some bright white crosses with dramatic shadows - though the compositions and shallow depth of field/focus shots are great. The grey headstones for the German soldiers looks very similar if not the same as the general somber/solemn German cemetery near Normandy as well. Quite a contrast with the American ones, both in design and maintenance presence.
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