Summer 2013
Page 14
The German War Graves Commission
Whenever we visit Langemark German Cemetery many of the group ask if there is a German organisation similar to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It is called the German War Graves Com m ission (Volks bund Deutsc he Kriegsgräberfürsorge). It was founded as a private charity on 16 December 1919 as the recognised [German] Commission under the war graves provisions of Article 225 of the Treaty of Versailles. Its main goals as laid out in is statutes are to guard the memory of the victims of war and violence, to work for peace among all nations and to guarantee dignity of men. Today, it looks after about 832 military cemeteries in 45 countries with about 2.5 million dead and its work is carried out by 8,000 honorary and 566 full-time employees. Now that the Cold War is over, the Volksbund has access to Eastern Europe, where the bulk of World War II German casualties occurred. Since 1991, 188 World War I cemeteries and 330 World War II cemeteries in eastern, central and southeastern Europe have been reconstructed or rebuilt and about 759,110 bodies have been buried in new graves. Everyday maintenance of German war cemeteries in France is looked after by the Service d'Entretien des Sépultures Militaires Allemandes (the "German Military Burials Maintenance Service") known as S.E.S.M.A. As it is mainly a charity organisation i ???????????????????????
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