morrisc8 Posted 2 May , 2021 Share Posted 2 May , 2021 Here are some photos of ww1 cemeteries used by the Germans and others in ww2 Some German graves were put in a ww1 cemetery [ La Chapelette ] in ww2, 1940. Photo from my collection. The last 3 photos are of Rethel cemetery that was used as a French position, [ info on the back of the photo ] there are 3 headstones on the ground. 1940. Photo from ebay. Who would look after the cemeteries during the war, The local people? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AOK4 Posted 2 May , 2021 Share Posted 2 May , 2021 Hello, The German Army was officially in charge of the German and other graves of 1940 and later. For the other graves, German or Allied, in principle everything remained as it was, meaning that if a local organization took care of the graves until 1940, they continued to do so. This was of course difficult in case of the British/Commonwealth graves as the IWGC had still plenty of British subjects in their service to care for the graves. They had usually fled or were considered "hostile aliens" or something similar and hence their freedom to move around was seriously diminished. If certain cemeteries were not sufficiently cared for, the German Army (via the Kommandanturen) ordered local authorities (communes) to bring things in order. In general, all cemeteries (also those of "enemies") were to be kept in good maintenance (of course considering the war time restrictions, so damaged headstones etc couldn't be replaced etc). Jan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AOK4 Posted 2 May , 2021 Share Posted 2 May , 2021 21 minutes ago, morrisc8 said: Here are some photos of ww1 cemeteries used by the Germans and others in ww2 Some German graves were put in a ww1 cemetery [ La Chapelette ] in ww2, 1940. Photo from my collection. The last 3 photos are of Rethel cemetery that was used as a French position, [ info on the back of the photo ] there are 3 headstones on the ground. 1940. Photo from ebay. Who would look after the cemeteries during the war, The local people? The German graves were concentrated during the war into newly built German war cemeteries. The German graves from la Chapelette were moved to the German war cemetery of Peronne Ste Radegonde ca 1942. Allied initiatives then again concentrated the German WW2 into larger German war cemeteries in the first years after the war. Bourdon was the German war cemetery for some of the Northern France departements. Jan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morrisc8 Posted 8 May , 2021 Author Share Posted 8 May , 2021 A few more ww1 cemeteries in ww2. Photos from my collection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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