Er liegt vor meinen Füße

he lies at my feet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y1Z1y2PSNw

D Day the 6th of June is contemplative, more serious to me than Memorial Day or Veterans Day. Moving, stirring the mind in a similar way to a visit to the Vietnam Veterans Wall on the Mall in WashingtonDC. Just so, I spent Time yesterday browsing, as I’ve not done before, not the comments of folks who visit American and Allied cemeteries around Normandy, but of folks who visited cemeteries with the graves of German war dead. They do not speak of “honored glory” of those who die in battle, but are quiet, somber is the word, Grim. Dark. Tragic. Reflective of deep remorse, whether the shame of having spread death, destruction, desolation and sending to their deaths a generation and more of their boys and young men and their generations forever; or of ending in disgrace and damnation instead of winning, is impossible to say. Looking through hundreds of visitor comments, 

I copied from some at Mont de Huisnes German Cemetery, 

but mostly from visitors to La Cambe. What I copied is below.

A friend who has been there put me onto Mont de Huisnes, the most unusual of German war cemeteries, unique, in construction a circle; and with a tall cross in the center, moving, 

but which, judgmentally does not strike me well, as their cause was the opposite to all that I believe Christianity should be; though the Cross does represent love and sacrifice, and I suppose for many here, and for those at home who once loved them, that was the case. The site contains not bodies or ashes, but is an ossuary, collected bones of the dead. 

La Cambe, which I mentioned yesterday, is the largest German war cemetery, and immediately after D Day was for American as well as German dead.

At any event, the remarks that touched me. They are here:

+++++++++++


You can sense deep shame in this place and that is so sad.

We visited it just after being at the American cemetary (only 17 km away), you will see the difference between the "cemetery of the good" and the "cemetery of the bad”

”History belongs to the victors”, never has that been more true than when you walk in the German soldiers cemetery. 

Very sobering and sad - - A vast contrast to the beauty of American and British cemeteries.

This cemetery is beautiful in a disturbing way.

This historic place is in stark contrast to the (beautiful) American cemetery. Take the time to walk around and read the grave markers. So many German soldiers were 17-18 years old.

A grim yet important place to reflect. We stumbled onto it by chance but it was probably the most memorable site in all of Normandy. Far different from the Allied cemeteries.

The entrance to the site is narrow so you must pass through in single file signifying we all face death alone. Yet inside each grave marker has two names, representing the German military tradition of being paired with a buddy.

Mein guter Kamerad

Visiting the WWII sites is an overwhelming and emotionally exhausting experience. 

A total contrast to the American cemetery at Colleville.

A sombre and haunting place. The first hand accounts of people explained in the visitor centre give this place a sad and depressing feeling. Again a monument to the futility of war.

A very somber site. We visited the American Cemetery, which can almost be viewed as majestic, before seeing La Cambe. The contrast is amazing. The combatants were mostly kids--someone's son, brother, cousin--and some were drafted into service unwillingly.

It is a stark contrast to the American cemetery with its rows of white crosses and Star of Davids. Here there are clusters of 5 crosses and then flat black headstones. In the center is a raised mound to commemorate the unknown dead, and on its top is a large cross and two large figures - a mother and a father grieving for their lost sons.

with its dark symbolic markers and gravestones, a chilling place to visit and to see the waste of thousands of human lives.

in the center is a large mound holding graves of unknown soldiers as well as some that are identified. Atop this mound is a cross with two stone figures …. the parents waiting for their sons

At the American cemetary the crosses are white and polished and the unknown soldiers "rest in honoured glory". At the German cemetery, the unknown soldiers are "zwei deutsche soldaten". They lie two to three to a grave under simple stone slabs. None of them died as heroes or for a great cause, but happened to be born at the wrong place at the wrong time. A striking number of graves belong to 17-year olds.

We don't celebrate the German part in D-Day, but it's worth realizing that there are 20,000 dead soldiers here that should be remembered. We always go here after seeing the American cemetery in all its immaculate gleaming white glory. The German cemetery is the polar opposite, and the juxtaposition is powerful. 

a quote from Albert Schweitzer further reminds us that "the graves of soldiers are the greatest preachers of peace." It's heartbreaking to look at the birth dates on the grave markers, and realize how many of those buried here died as teenagers, as well as to realize how many families never knew for certain what happened to their loved ones.

A complete contrast to American cemetery' that is filled with light. This is very dark. My sons found graves for soldiers as young as 16 yrs old which shocked them 

Instead of the rethoric of allied cemeteries, full of words like freedom and heroism, this very quiet and peaceful place shows what is really war: not a heroic event, but the most monstrous and revolting thing created by man and the most stupid way to lose our life.

It is a stark contrast to the American Cemetery. The site is dark. Instead of brave and harrowing deeds, you read about how to best not repeat history.

A sad place with dark crosses over the graves. In comparison to the American and British cemeteries this was even more poignant. These young men buried here were young innocents too.

Understandably, this cemetery of German dead is sombre and reserved, without any of the bombast of the American burial grounds. Sheltered by spreading trees, the graves are marked by small brown plaques set flat into the ground. Birth dates confirm how young many of the soldiers died. Little clusters of short, roughly-carved stone crosses between the rows of plaques show that this is a cemetery, and a hillock topped by a larger cross flanked by statues of grieving parents marks the burial site of the many unidentified German dead. 

There are no nationalistic slogans, and the whole site is permeated with an atmosphere of sadness at the idiocy of war. Elderly people move silently between the plaques, mourning not soldiers but parents and siblings. Whereas the Allied cemeteries have Stars of David scattered among the crosses, there are none here, this inevitable omission reminding us of a shameful period of German history.

Somber, tragic reminder that the "enemy" were also just kids

The German Cemetery with its dark markers and heavy spirit

The entrance is bleak as is the whole atmosphere of this place. 

I found myself dwelling on a letter of one young soldier to his family back home in Germany – something along the lines of “they are sending us off to Cherbourg now to drive those Americans back into the sea”. It was his last message home…

as an American having just seen the WWII American cemetary, I found this German one possessed an eerie feel to it with the mass unmarked grave as well as all the tombstones being black. I felt style definitely reflected the attitude the people of Normandy, and the world for that matter, felt toward the Germans who invaded their homeland and killed their sons and husbands.

So many lives taken for such a evil cause. My wife and I both had relatives who fought and died for Germany in WW2. This cemetery has a dark look and feel to it. It is not a place that evokes either a sense of patriotism or honor.

The crosses are black granite and add to the aura. Very well maintained. Can't help but wonder how Germans feel when they visit here.

recommend touring on the same day as the American in order to get the ambiance comparison. 

This is kept well, but designed differently. Very humbly

The entrance includes a narrow passageway wide enough for only one person at a time to enter, because death is a passage that must be made alone.  This cemetery is not a tribute or even a remembrance of the nation which sent its youth to war, but is a somber recollection and reminder of the pointlessness of war

Silence. The German cemetery does not make any attempt to glorify the sacrifice. A very different place than the American one. A touching one.

There was a feeling of peace in this place of continuing sadness. Here there were few visitors (when we arrived one afternoon we were the only ones there). 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg0BZSWZD9A

Bleib du im ew'gen Leben
Mein guter Kamerad!

You rest in eternal life
My good comrade