Cimetière allemand de La Cambe - Normandie - France - Veteran Cemeteries on Waymarking.com

[FR] Il y reposent 21 222 soldats. Chaque tombe est une exhortation à la paix. Entre le cimetière et la route nationale (R.N. 13) un Jardin de la Paix est aménagé (ouvert depuis septembre 1996). Plus que mille arbres, portant chacun sur une petite plaque le nom de son parrain donateur, forment avec le cimetière voisin un ensemble unique au monde.

La plupart des victimes de guerre qui reposent ici sont tombées entre le 6 Juin et le 20 Août 1944. Beaucoup de ces soldats étaient encore très jeunes - ils n'avaient que 18,19 ou 20 ans. Ils sont morts lors du débarquement des Alliés et des combats qui lui ont succédé.
Le Service Americain des Sépultures Militaires inhuma les soldats allemands et américains dans deux grands terrains adjacents. En 1945, conformément aux voeux des familles, les Américains transfèrent dans leur patrie environ deux tiers de leurs soldats morts au combat. Pour les autres, on créa, à 15 kilomètres environ de la Cambe, le cimetière américain de St Laurent-sur-Mer (Colleville). En 1954, il a été décidé dans l'accord franco-allemand relatif aux tombes de guerre, d'aménager le site de La Cambe pour en faire l'un des six cimetières de regroupement allemands en Normandie. Le Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (Service pour l'Entretien des Sépultures Militaires Allemandes) s'est chargé de cette tâche.
À La Cambe, les collaborateurs du Volksbund ont regroupé plus de 12 000 morts provenant des cimetières provisoires des champs de batailles dans plus de 1 400 communes des départements du Calvados et de l'Orne. Aujourd'hui encore, on y trouve des morts - plus de 700 jusqu'ici. 207 soldats inconnus ainsi que 89 morts ayant pu être identifiés y reposent sous le tumulus central de la Cambe couronné de sa croix de granit de plus de 5 mètres de haut. En 1958, La Cambe a été le site du premier camp de jeunes organisé par le Volksbund en France. Depuis lors, les jeunes participants, plus tard soutenus par les soldats de la Bundeswehr (l'armee de la R.F.A.) aident à entretenir et rénover le cimetière.

Sur la grande carte de la Normandie à l'intérieur du centre d'information, on peut repérer les emplacements des six cimetières militaires allemands ainsi que tous les cimetières des autres nations. L'exposition trilingue (allemand, anglais, français) montre la souffrance humaine que la guerre a engendrée ici en Normandie. Des photos, des documents d'origine et des textes évoquent les destins américains, britanniques, français et allemands. Un ordinateur installé dans le bâtiment permet de se renseigner sur les noms et les tombes de tous les soldats américains, britanniques et allemands enterrés en Normandie. Sont également répertoriés les noms et les lieux de décès de toutes les victimes civiles françaises.

[EN] In the center, topped by a large dark cross, which is flanked by statues is an impressive tumulus, which marks the resting place for 207 unknown and 89 identified German soldiers, interred together in a mass grave.

The War Cemetery at La Cambe was originally the site of a battlefield cemetery, established by the American Graves Registration Service during the war, where American and German soldiers, sailors and airmen were buried in two adjacent fields. After the war had ended on the continent and paralleling the work undertaken to repair all the devastation that the war had caused, work began on exhuming the American remains and transferring them in accordance with the wishes of their families. Beginning in 1945, the Americans transferred two-thirds of their fallen from this site back to the United States while the remainder were reinterred at the new permanent War Cemetery at St Laurent-sur-Mer (Colleville), which overlooks the Omaha Beach landing site.

Because of the pace of the war, the German war dead in Normandy were scattered over a wide area, many of them buried in isolated field graves - or small battlefield cemeteries. In the years following the war, the German War Graves Commission (Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfüsorge) sought to establish six main German cemeteries in the Normandy area, with the one here at La Cambe started in 1954 following the signing of the Franco-German Treaty on War Graves. During this period the remains of more than 12,000 German soldiers were moved in from 1,400 locations in the French departments of Calvados and the Orne. The German War Cemetery at La Cambe was inaugurated in September 1961. Since that date, the remains of more than 700 soldiers have been found on battlefields across Normandy, and reinterred at La Cambe.

The majority of the German war dead buried at La Cambe fell between June 6 and August 20 1944 and their ages range from 16 to 72. They died during the Allied landings and the ensuing combat.

Since the mid-1990s there has been an Information Center on the site, where visitors can view a permanent exhibition about the German War Graves Commission and access a database to search for the location of German military dead.

Unlike the American and British War Graves Commission the German Commission is entirely voluntary and relies on gifts and collections to further its work. During the summer months you may see German school children tending the graves; they volunteer to work with the Volksbund during their school holidays. It is one of the ways the Volksbund hope to promote peace. Victims of the war in Normandy are still being found, even after fifty years, and in Russia the Germans are still burying their war dead.

In total, as of July 2008, there are the remains of 21,222 German soldiers, sailors and airmen buried at La Cambe.

The sign in front of the cemetery reads as follows:

The German Cemetery at La Cambe: In the Same Soil of France Until 1947, this was an American cemetery. The remains were exhumed and shipped to the United States. It has been German since 1948, and contains over 21,000 graves. With its melancholy rigour, it is a graveyard for soldiers not all of whom had chosen either the cause or the fight. They too have found rest in our soil of France.

Date cemetery was established: Sepember 1961 Visiting hours: 8.00-19.00 daily Website pertaining to the cemetery: [Web Link]

Visit Instructions:
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