La Cambe German Cemetary & Visitors Centre

[Mark McShane]

Guys,

In another thread I mentioned that I would be visiting La Cambe Cemetary and a member asked me to take some photos of the visitors centre. I was at the Centre & Cemetary last Saturday, the weather was poor with plenty of rain and very windy conditions. There were only brief periods when the sun broke through.

The exposition in the visitors centre acts to inform the visitors of the work of the Volksbund and how the war cemetaries were organised in Normandy. It also gives information on their work in maintaining the other German war grave sites throughout Europe (including Glencree in Co. Wicklow, Ireland) There is an interesting section where they decsribe their huge task of identifying and laying to rest the German war dead in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet union (over 350,000 have been recovered in the last 10 years).
A booklet is available about the exposition for €5 which has all the written information that is on display at the centre.

Regrads,

Mark

[Mark McShane]

Exposition main room at Visitors centre

[Mark McShane]

Display case at visitors centre

[Mark McShane]

Another view of the centre

[Mark McShane]

Map showing location of war cemetaries in Normandy

[Mark McShane]

Aerial photos of the cemetary

[Mark McShane]

Entrance to the cemetary

[Mark McShane]

Mass grave in La Cambe cemetary, view from the front.

[Mark McShane]

View of cemetary from top of mass grave.

[Mark McShane]

The final resting place of Micheal Wittmann and his crew (a bad photo due to the rain)

[tazpants]

All those cemeteries are so beautifully maintained in Normandy. They are so respectfully managed and are such peaceful places for all those who died over there (from both sides).

[behblc]

Thank you.

Mark, Thank you for posting up the photos of La Cambe . Very much apperciated.
The memorial is an accident waiting to happen in the wet.

Thank you.

[Óscar G]

Thanks Mark. I couldn´t help remembering my visit to the cemetary four years ago. The words in the entrance left a profound impression on me. They were written by Albert Schweitzer and say something like this: "the war cemetaries are the best prophets of peace". Later, when I was at the monument, I saw a German vet with a bouquet. He told me a sentence I´ll never forget: "Gott hat das letzte Wort" (God has the last word). Great experience, indeed.
Best regards. Óscar

[MJC]

Great Pics. I have tremendous respect for the Volksbund and their relatively thankless work.

I spent a rainy late Fall afternoon in the main Friedhof in Salzburg, getting dark with the wind stirring, women lighting the little red votives, reading the graves for hours. Very moving. I found myself watching mourners laying flowers on the graves, then reading the gravestones after they left, wondering about the relationship between mourner and those interred. Quite a few high ranking personages from both wars in there. Placed a few flowers myself. I do the same at Arlington, but those are primarily relatives.

Thanks for posting.

[Chet Sowersby]

Thanks for the pics. Considering how peacefull it now looks it is hard to imagine the horrors these men suffered.

Chet