German war cemetery Neuville-St. Vaast

graveyard
German war cemetery Neuville-St. Vaast (Cimetière militaire allemand de Neuville-Saint-Vaast)
Country:	France
Region:	Hauts-de-France
Place:	Neuville-Saint-Vaast
Inauguration:	November 13, 1983, originally created by the French military authorities from 1919 to 1923

The German war cemetery Neuville-St. Vaast is a military cemetery in the French commune of Neuville-Saint-Vaast in the Pas-de-Calais department . 44,833 German soldiers who died in the First World War rest there . The cemetery is one and a half kilometers south of the center of the city.

Situation in the First World War

Neuville-Saint-Vaast was on the Western Front during the First World War . Many soldiers died in the fighting; B. in the battle for Artois from August 1914 to the end of 1915 and in the battles for Arras from 1917 and 1918. Shortly after the World War, the collective cemetery was created by the French armed forces. From 1919 to 1923, the dead from German field graves and smaller graves from over a hundred parishes were reburied here, mainly from the area north and east of Arras. Many remains were also found when clearing up the battlefields for reuse. In the further course of the 20th century many other dead were found and buried here, e. B. in the construction of the A26 autobahn .

Most of the unknown dead were buried at the German war cemetery of St. Laurent Blangy , which is about five kilometers to the south-east.

layout

36,793 dead, including 615 unknown soldiers, rest in the cemetery. 8,040 dead are buried in a mass grave. The graves are cared for by the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge .

A German memorial stone for a regiment from Hanover was moved from the cemetery in Boiry-Sainte-Rictrude , which had been abolished, to the war cemetery in Neuville-Saint-Vaast and is in the middle of the burial ground. In the course of the 20th century, the war cemetery was further redesigned.

In the 1970s, the simple crosses were replaced by metal grave crosses. The 129 graves for Jewish soldiers were decorated with memorial stones with Hebrew characters on them. There are 29 grave fields in the cemetery. Two fallen soldiers are named on the front and back of each metal cross. The name books and the guest book are accessible in a barred niche in the entrance hall.

In the cemetery there is a relief that names 17 cemeteries from other nations in the area, where 200,000 soldiers from different nations rest. In December 2015, the French President François Hollande inaugurated a memorial for so-called fraternities near the cemetery .

The dead

The fallen belonged to more than 100 different infantry divisions and artillery regiments as well as numerous other units, such as engineers, airmen, mine throwers, etc. They came from all countries and provinces of what was then the German Empire.

Other war cemeteries around Neuville-Saint-Vaast

In the Nord-Pas de Calais region there are more than 700 military cemeteries for all warring parties. To Neuville-Saint-Vaast these include:

• Nécropole nationale de Notre-Dame-de-Lorette
• Nécropole nationale de la Targette
• La Targette British Cemetery - Neuville-Saint-Vaast
• Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery - Souchez
• Cimetière tchécoslavaque / polonais - Neuville Saint Vaast

Web links

Commons : German war cemetery Neuville-St. Vaast  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Neuville-Saint-Vaast - German burial ground by la Maison Blanche.
• Website Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge: German War Cemetery Neuville-St. Vaast.
• Information on the military cemetery in Neuville-St. Vaast (1914-1918) with photos on the page of the village of Mehrow, Ahrensfelde municipality
• (en) Photos from the German war cemetery Neuville-St. Vaast.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Internet site Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge: German war gravesite Neuville-St. Vaast.
2. ↑ Internet site of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge: German War Cemetery St. Laurent Blangy.
3. ↑ Internet site Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge: German war gravesite Neuville-St. Vaast
4. ↑ (en) World War I Battlefields (battlefields of the First World War) ( Memento of the original from April 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ (en) Neuville-Saint-Vaast German Military Cemetery "La Maison Blanche" (German war cemetery Neuville-St. Vaast).
6. ^ At the military cemetery in Neuville-St. Vaast (1914-1918)
7. ↑ Internet site Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge: German war gravesite Neuville-St. Vaast
8. ↑ Report on zeit.de, December 17, 2015, accessed on December 18, 2015
9. ↑ Internet site Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge: German war gravesite Neuville-St. Vaast
10. ↑ Bernhard Schulz: Crosses of War. In: Tagesspiegel of March 24, 2013, p. R 4.
11. ↑ Photography Cimetières militaires / 62 - Neuville Saint Vaast ( Memento of the original of February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

Coordinates: 50 ° 20 ′ 32 "  N , 2 ° 45 ′ 15"  E