17 November 2014

Volkstrauertag

Today I participated in the Volkstrauertag ceremony, which is a German form of Rememberance Day. As you can probably appreciate, this has a different focus to typical Commonwealth and US ceremonies.  It was held at the local cemetery which holds two German U-Boat sailors from WW2.
The first was from U-550, sunk off the US coast in May 1944.

The second grave is for an unknown sailor from U-853, sunk close by on 6 May 45 - ironically one day after the cessation of hostilities, which the U-boat likely did not receive.
It was clearly a very emotional day for our German friends, in the spirit of remembering the victims of war and the appreciation of freedoms enjoyed by many since 1945.  I was very pleased to be a part of it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkstrauertag

2 comments:

  1. Thanks a lot for sharing your sympathy, Paul.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Can't agree more. We all should take these occasions be it Rememberance Day or the Volkstrauertag to reflect on the tragedies past and present. Lest we forget.

    ReplyDelete