Another from my collection.
These parents obviously loved their son.
Ralph.
Another from my collection.
These parents obviously loved their son.
Ralph.
Last edited by rbminis; 12-24-2020 at 09:10 PM.
Searching for anything relating to, Anton Boos, 934 Stamm. Kp. Pz. Erz. Abt. 7, 3 Kompanie, Panzer-Regiment 2, 16th Panzer-Division (My father)
Very interesting thread. What interests me is what happened to these cemetaries and graves after the war. Out of personal interest I visited the Narva German cemetary. My expecation was to find some remainders of the Germanic SS volunteers as in tombstones or a name on a memorial. Turns out that the cemetary was completely new. After the fall of communism the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge put a lot of effort and money in restoring these places and working together with local groups. As far as I heard from a local person, the Soviets removed the memorials and crosses and made it into a parking lot. I doubt these graves and cemetaries got much respect from the Soviet victors.
From what I have read, all German military cemeteries on the territory of the former USSR, without exception, were destroyed. In most cases, they were forgotten, especially in unpopulated areas, forests, swampy areas, etc. On the other hand, those that were in areas of urban expansion were covered when parking lots or buildings were built.
What has enabled the Volksbund to do its decades-long hard work of unearthing, identifying and reburying the bodies of tens of thousands of fallen German soldiers in Russia, has been the fact that a sketch was made of every burial indicating the number of graves. , its location some orographic reference, as well as its cardinal orientation.
The Duchowschtschina cemetery near Smolensk contains more than 60,000 bodies of German soldiers.
Just a depressing thought that your grave was bulldozed and turned into a parking lot. Visiting wargraves at home and abroad is also another hobby of mine and I try to do it when I am abroad on vacation. The Volksbund still has many decades of tremendous work ahead of them. What find fascinating is the huge difference between commonwealth and German cemetaries. The allied ones here in Holland are being well taken care off. Every year on memorial day, these graves get wreaths and flowers. When I was in the boyscouts, one of our yearly duties was to take care of these graves and place these flowers.
The German ones are usually sombre, quiet and very sober. One more thing I like to add is that during the war and shortly after, some high end collaborators working with the Germans lost their lives. Most were burried in an unmarked grave with little to no ceremony. I recently found out that the leader of the Germanic SS in the Netherlands is burried a few hundred metres from my house. (what are the odds!) Henk Feldmeijer as a character deserves a thread of his own with a fascinating story. He was killed by an air attack - fighter plane straving his car - and was first burried with huge ceremony with all NSB leadership and high SS present. When the war was going the wrong direction, the body was exhumed and reburied on a quiet cemetary in the north of the country by few local SS men.
I expected the grave to be cleared out after the war since this man was the face of treason. He was burried with a family member due to a shortage of space in the cemetary. After checking this out for myself he was still there December 2020 with flowers covering the grave. My thoughts are that modern day national socialists use it for pilgrimage. However, not being very well known to the general public, this has stayed out the spotlights of the media.
From ebay..
I'd rather be A "RaD Man than a Mad Man "
And of course, a poor soul from the RAD
I'd rather be A "RaD Man than a Mad Man "
Another Arbeitsmann.. K 3/134, July 5th, 1940..
I'd rather be A "RaD Man than a Mad Man "
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