Thank you Peter and Jenny for sharing these stories of your visits to World War graves and war sites some of which was new to me. I  forwarded the bit about the football match to soccer playing grandchildren here in the USA. They know about their British grand and great grandparents who served in those wars but this story serves to point out that most people regardless of color/race/creed are basically the same despite what some world leaders think. Regards Barbara Turnham Washington DC jenny wrote: > I too have visited the German war cemeteries in Belgium and France and have been deeply saddened by the depressing nature of the burial plots compared to the immaculate cemeteries of the allies where the roses are replaced every year and cemeteries beautifully maintained. It sorrows me that we can't get over the atrocities of the past and acknowledge that the German soldiers were also just boys going off to war, no different to our men, being manipulated by their generals and used as cannon fodder. They should also be entitled to a decent grave. > > I visited the burial plot of my gt uncle, Thomas John Schaefer, a German descendant who fought with an Australian battalion. Thomas was killed in Belgium at the age of 19 along with two of his cousins who are buried as unknown soldiers in unmarked Australian graves. > > At one of the cemeteries I marveled at the irony of two English soldiers buried in the German cemetery in a mass grave along with thousands of German soldiers, simply because the bodies of the Englishmen could not be distinguished from the Germans. > > The most uplifting part of my visit was to the site of the football match between the Germans and allies on Christmas Day 1914. A cross and numerous footballs, since laid by visitors, are all that mark the spot. On that day in 1914, French, German and British soldiers crossed the trenches to exchange seasonal greetings and talk. Their meetings ended in carol-singing and games of football between the opposing sides. Apparently afterwards, the generals banned any future association between their troops in case they stopped thinking of the Germans as enemies. I think there could have been a learnt a lot from these young men. Maybe if they'd been allowed to play football the war would have been over a lot earlier. > Regards > Jenny Ellis-Newman > ________________________________ > From: P. S. Wyant <wyants@sasktel.net> > Sent: Sunday, 11 November 2018 2:13 AM > To: suffolk@rootsweb.com > Subject: [SFK-UK] November 11 > > Hello, Folks. > > As we do at this time every year on this List and this year especially (being the 100th anniversary of the WWI Armistice, the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, and the 51st anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall), and whether you call it Remembrance Day, Armistice Day or Veterans' Day, please feel free to post your memories of warriors either lost or returned, who served or who are still serving, of any country and any conflict, and of civilians lost because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. > > I remember my father, Lt.Col. Gordon M. Wyant (b. Günter Maximilian Weiss), who served in the RAMC in WWII, and my uncle, Sgt. Edgar T. Wyant (b. Egon Weiss), who served in Italy with the 849th Signal Infantry Service, U.S. Army. I remember my grandfather's younger brother, Gefr. Arthur Weiss, 87th Reserve Infantry Regiment of Mainz, who was killed near Cernay-en-Dormois, France, on 15 May/1915 (Pesach) fighting for his country. I remember all my Suffolk uncles who served in British forces in WWII. > > Last year, I tried to find Arthur's grave in three immaculately kept German war cemeteries near Cernay-en-Dormois but could not. Each cemetery also had a mass plot holding hundreds and hundreds of unnamed German war dead from nearby battles of WWI. I can only assume he is resting in one of those. > > I also stood on Juno Beach and cried, remembering all the Canadians who stormed ashore at that place on 6 Jun/1944, many of whom now rest in the Canadian war cemetery at Beny-sur-Mer, a few kilometres inland, under the quiet shade of Canadian maple trees. May they rest in peace. Looking at the world today and the recent rise of racism, populism, nationalism, protectionism or fascism in many countries, western and non-western, I sometimes fear they died in vain. > > And I remember all the members of my extended family who perished in the Holocaust. > > Lest we forget. > > Peter > SUFFOLK List Admin. > >