German Remembrance Day, November 14th

[egbert]

For those of you who are interested in participating German commemoration services at the occasion of Volkstrauertag ( where Germans remember all dead of both world wars regardless which side they died for), here is a compiled list of locations in USA/CA:

11. November 2004 Ottawa War Memorial / Kanada (Volkstrauertag)

Gedenkfeier mit Kranzniederlegung

14. November 2004 Kitchener-Waterloo Woodland-Friedhof / Kanada (Volkstrauertag)

Kranzniederlegung des deutschen Generalkonsuls in Toronto

14. November 2004 Fort Gordon/Georgia deutsche Gräberanlage / USA (Volkstrauertag)

Kranzniederlegung mit deutscher militärischer Beteiligung

14. November 2004 San Francisco Golden Gate Friedhof / USA (Volkstrauertag)

Gedenkfeier mit deutscher militärischer Beteiligung

14. November 2004 Chicago Fort Custer National Cemetery / USA (Volkstrauertag)

Kranzniederlegung des deutschen Generalkonsulats

14. November 2004 Oklahoma City Fort Reno Military Cemetery / USA (Volkstrauertag)

Kranzniederlegung

14. November 2004 Arlington/VA National Cemetery / USA (Volkstrauertag)

Kranzniederlegung des deutschen Heeresattachés

14. November 2004 Fort Bliss/TX National Cemetery / USA (Volkstrauertag)

Kranzniederlegung mit deutscher militärischer Beteiligung

14. November 2004 Fort Meade/Maryland Military Cemetery / USA (Volkstrauertag)

Kranzniederlegung des deutschen Marineattachés

14. November 2004 Newport/RI Insel-Cemetery / USA (Volkstrauertag)

Kranzniederlegung deutscher Lehrgangsteilnehmer des Naval War College

14. November 2004 Boston Fort Devens Military Cemetery / USA (Volkstrauertag)

Kranzniederlegung des deutschen Generalkonsuls

14. November 2004 Fort Bragg Military Cemetery / USA (Volkstrauertag)

Kranzniederlegung mit deutscher militärischer Begleitung

14. November 2004 Salt Lake City/Utah Military Cemetery Connor Road / USA (Volkstrauertag)

Kranzniederlegung mit deutscher militärischer Beteiligung

14. November 2004 Fort Knox/Kentucky Military Cemetery / USA (Volkstrauertag)

Kranzniederlegung mit deutscher militärischer Beteiligung

14. November 2004 Fort Leavenworth/Kansas National Cemetery / USA (Volkstrauertag)

Kranzniederlegung mit deutscher militärischer Beteiligung

14. November 2004 Fort McCellan/Alabama deutsch-italienischer Friedhof / USA (Volkstrauertag) with egbert

Kranzniederlegung mit deutscher militärischer Beteiligung

14. November 2004 Fort Monroe / USA (Volkstrauertag)

Kranzniederlegung mit deutscher militärischer Beteiligung

14. November 2004 Fort Riley/Kansas Military Cemetery / USA (Volkstrauertag)

Kranzniederlegung mit deutscher militärischer Beteiligung

14. November 2004 Fort Sill/Oklahoma Military Cemetery / USA (Volkstrauertag)

Kranzniederlegung mit deutscher militärischer Beteiligung

14. November 2004 Mc Alister/Oklahoma Oak Hill Cemetey / USA (Volkstrauertag)

Kranzniederlegung mit deutscher militärischer Beteiligung

14. November 2004 Quantico / USA (Volkstrauertag)

Kranzniederlegung mit deutscher militärischer Beteiligung

14. November 2004 Fort Benning / USA (Volkstrauertag)

Kranzniederlegung

[Guest Simon Bull]

Egbert,

I had never realised that the German commemoration Day was 14 November. Can you tell me why this is? I can see the logic in us remembering 11 November as it was the effective end of the war. However I cannot think of any particular event on 14 November which would prompt one to remember the war on that date.

[andigger]

Another other pals in the area, I think I am going to the event at Arlington.

egbert.. Is there any place to find out more info about the event. I'll check the Arlington website as well, but was curious where this might happen in the cemetary.

thanks for the heads up, Andy

14. November 2004 Arlington/VA National Cemetery / USA (Volkstrauertag)

Kranzniederlegung des deutschen Heeresattachés

[egbert]

Another other pals in the area, I think I am going to the event at Arlington.

egbert.. Is there any place to find out more info about the event. I'll check the Arlington website as well, but was curious where this might happen in the cemetary.

thanks for the heads up, Andy

14. November 2004 Arlington/VA National Cemetery / USA (Volkstrauertag)

Kranzniederlegung des deutschen Heeresattachés

No further info avail, but:

Contact information

Mail address

Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington, Virginia 22211

Telephone

For General Information, including location of gravesites

(703) 607-8000

[egbert]

Egbert,

I had never realised that the German commemoration Day was 14 November.  Can you tell me why this is?  I can see the logic in us remembering 11 November as it was the effective end of the war.  However I cannot think of any particular event on 14 November which would prompt one to remember the war on that date.

Simon, the Volkstrauertag (German Remembrance Day) was commemorated first time in 1919. In agreement with government, the German states and the Lutheran and Catholic church the day was fixed on the 33rd sunday of catholic church (year)-cycle and second last sunday lutheran church (year)-cycle which is always a Sunday in mid November

[stiletto_33853]

Egbert,

Thank you for that information, I for one never realised that.

Andy

[Guest Volker]

Egbert,

I had never realised that the German commemoration Day was 14 November.  Can you tell me why this is?  I can see the logic in us remembering 11 November as it was the effective end of the war.  However I cannot think of any particular event on 14 November which would prompt one to remember the war on that date.

Simon,

the German commemoration day (Volkstrauertag literally translates as something like People's Mourning Day) always is on the Sunday two weeks before the first Sunday of Advent. That date was chosen in 1950 but I'm not sure why. The closeness to 11th November as well as 9th November (Nazi pogrom against Jews in 1938) might have played a role.

Before WWII the day had been celebrated a few weeks before Easter. (Again I don't know why.) During the Nazi period it had been called "Heldengedenktag" - Heroes Memorial Day(!)

Volker

[Guest Simon Bull]

Thanks Pals for this explanation.

It seems an odd way to do things, divorcing commemoration from the "real" calendar, however, each to their own.

[Guest Volker]

>>It seems an odd way to do things, divorcing commemoration from the "real" calendar, however, each to their own.

I suppose there are different reasons for that. The 11th November has never stuck that much in the German collective memory as it has in the Anglosaxon world. During the period of the Weimar Republic that probably had to do with the fact that the defeat hadn't been accepted by the majority of the population, and certainly not many peoply wanted to upvalue it by making it a public commemoration day.

After the Second World War the first war in public perception became but a prelude to the really big desaster that was to follow, and the Volkstrauertag was reintroduced to commemorate the dead of both world wars and the victims of Nazi tyranny, so again 11th November was not really the most significant date.

There might be a further, rather profane reason. 11th November (11/11), precisely at 11:11 hours, traditionally is the "official" beginning of the carneval season in the catholic regions of Germany. That means that all those associations involved start organizing and preparing the festivities in February (constructing the decorated cars for the carneval parades, preparing sketches and speeches for the public celebrations etc. The day is in some town and cities celebrated in a way that gives a taste of the main festivities in February. All that doesn't go very well with a day of mourning.

By the way, a few years ago an additional commemoration day has been introduced (although it is not a public holiday) and that is linked to a historical event: 27th January is the commemoration day for the victims of the Holocaust. It was the day when in 1945 Auschwitz was liberated by the Red Army.

Volker

[egbert]

Here is the press release and story about the service in Ft. Benning from today:

German POWs buried at Fort Benning are not forgotten

By Elliott Minor

Associated Press Writer

11-14-2004

FORT BENNING, Ga. — Dignitaries will soon gather at the Fort Benning cemetery to honor former enemies - 44 German soldiers, including a highly decorated general, who died as World War II prisoners of war. Although these soldiers are buried thousands of miles from home, they are not forgotten. German-born women, many of them wives of current or retired U.S. soldiers, place colorful silk flowers in urns at each grave throughout the year. And each November, Fort Benning’s German Army liaison team hosts “Volkstrauertag” - Germany’s day of mourning - to honor the dead soldiers, most of them killed by illnesses or in accidents. For convenience, the memorial service will be held Wednesday - four days earlier than the official observances in Germany. “The minimum you can do is honor these soldiers who sacrificed,” said Lt. Col. Herbert R. Sladek, the German liaison officer. “They were educated in another time period, with another political guideline. In their opinion, they also fought for freedom, liberty and for their fatherland. That’s why these people gave all they had - their own lives.” Among the invited guests for the ceremony are the German consul general in Atlanta and Fort Benning’s commander, Brig. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley. Others will include members of Rolling Thunder, a motorcycle club that focuses on POW-MIA issues and “Klub Heimatland,” the German women’s group that tends the graves. “They are German soldiers and we feel like we want to pay our respects to them,” said Inge Wills, the club’s president. “It means something for us to do this for the families who cannot do it.” U.S. Army musicians will play the German equivalent of taps - “Ich hatt’ einen Kameraden,” a 19th-century dirge about the loss of a buddy in combat. The German graves and the graves of a few Italian POWs, are surrounded by the headstones of hundreds of U.S. soldiers and family members. Lt. Gen. Willibald Borowietz, who was killed in an auto accident on July 1, 1945, is the highest-ranking POW buried at Fort Benning. According to his headstone, he received the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves - the equivalent of the U.S. Medal of Honor. During World War II, especially during the collapse of the Afrika Corps, about 700 internment camps, including 466 in the South, were thrown up in the United States to detain nearly a half-million enemy soldiers. They arrived sometimes at a rate of 30,000 a month. About 860 of the German POWs are buried at 43 sites across the United States, according to the German War Graves Commission, a private charity based in Kassel, Germany, that registers, maintains and cares for the graves of the country’s war dead abroad. They died from illnesses, accidents and other causes. The largest number, 108, are buried at the National Cemetery in Chattanooga, Tenn., which also has the graves of 78 World War I German POWs. Other major burial sites are Fort Sam Houston, Texas, with 133, Fort Riley, Kan., with 63 and Fort Reno, Okla., with 62, including the grave of a POW who was murdered by six fellow prisoners. They were executed. With most of America’s able-bodied men overseas fighting the war, the German POWs helped ease a labor shortage by working on farms and in the forests. Georgia had 40 camps with 11,800 prisoners at places like Fort Benning and what is now Fort Stewart near Savannah and Moody Air Force Base, near Valdosta. There were many smaller camps in rural areas such as Fargo, on the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp. “German POWs were treated very well,” said Arnold Krammer, a Texas A&M history professor who has written several books on German POWs. “In some cases they were given wine and beer with every meal,” he said. “Of course, prison is still prison. They were bored and unhappy.” But thousands returned to Germany fluent in English and “having a new love and respect for the United States,” Krammer said. Many climbed into the hierarchy of the postwar government, while others became business executives, writers and artists, he said. Farmers paid the government for the POWs’ work and the government paid the POWs. “Each prisoner could take back several hundred dollars or more which helped lubricate the German economy,” Krammer said. “It was one of those programs that just worked out well for everybody.”

[Guest Volker]

Thank you for the article. I once listened to a radio programme in Germany about German POWs in the States during WWII who had worked on farms in the midwest. On the whole they seemed to have had a good time, and those who had been there told about it in a warm and positive way.

Volker

[andigger]

By the way, a few years ago an additional commemoration day has been introduced (although it is not a public holiday) and that is linked to a historical event: 27th January is the commemoration day for the victims of the Holocaust. It was the day when in 1945 Auschwitz was liberated by the Red Army.

Not to make anything more out of this than it is, which is strictly irony, but isn't odd how certain dates repeat in the history of a nation? 27 Jan is also the Kaiser's birthday.

Andy

[egbert]

FORT BLISS: GERMAN DAY OF NATIONAL MOURNINGFallen soldiers, civilian remembered by post Erica MolinaEl Paso Times

Yasmin A. Aboytes / El Paso Times A German air force officer stood Sunday at graves with other airmen to honor such men as Obergefreiter (upper private first class) Walter Jaeger at the Fort Bliss National Cemetery during the German Day of National Mourning for all who died in wartime.

Soldiers of the German Air Defense School on Sunday silently stood beside the graves of 26 countrymen at Fort Bliss National Cemetery who died in this region during World War II, thousands of miles from their homes. Somber faces of the crowd stared ahead as the names of the dead were read at the ceremony for the German Day of National Mourning. "It's an important holiday for us to celebrate -- the National Day of Mourning," said Anke Gieseler-Jabccynski, director of the German Office of Defense Administration at Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo. "I'm a civilian, and I came to show my commitment with the soldiers." Horst Jabccynski stood beside his wife during the ceremony. The pair was among about 150 people who attended the annual observance. The couple made the hour-long drive for the event despite icy temperatures and a cold drizzle that persisted for most of the morning. Those who were honored Sunday at Fort Bliss National Cemetery were 25 German soldiers and a German civilian who were prisoners of war during World War II and later died in the El Paso area. But the ceremony honored all those who died as a result of war and violence, particularly German soldiers who died in World War I and World War II. The day of mourning began in 1920. "It's a special day for the German air force," Master Sgt. Rolf Schulz said. "We think about our soldiers from the second war. We think about our past. We think about our future." The cold morning accompanying the event fit the mood for some. "I think it was just like we did it in Germany. It's always cold in Germany and this is just like being home," said Lt. Col. Holger Rohlfing of the German Air Defense School. "It was a very good day to remember everybody who died as a result of war."