23rd November 2008
Different Cemeteries
German cemeteries greatly contrast to British ones, and they are both very different to French cemeteries. British graves, as you can see in some of my other blogs are white blocks, and there is very little difference between them, apart from the names, rank, regiment, etc and the personal inscription (if any). French headstones are brown crosses with a gold name plaque. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of French headstones. German headstones are very different again. They are normally darker colours, and vary from regiment to regiment. For example, at Neuville St Vasse they were dark grey crosses with four names on each, this is only occasionally broken by a Jewish headstone. There is also a lot less information, all factors combine to make it much less personal. They are just names, you can't really see anything of the person, there is no date of death, no inscription, no regimental insignia, nothing. At St Symphorien we could see a variety of other grave styles, I hope the attached pictures gives an impression of the very different feeling you get from German cemeteries as opposed to British ones.