German war dead of the Second World War are buried in Solers.
Description of the cemetery
A flagstone path leads visitors to the copper-plated gate of the entrance hall. It is deliberately kept simple - with walls made of roughly hewn stone.
From there, the grounds with their graves and high crosses can be overlooked.
Shell limestone steles mark the graves. Both sides of the stelae bear the names of three of the dead. The three high crosses each consist of five basalt blocks. Behind them, in the middle of a large lawn, the communal grave is laid out under a stone slab.
A quarrystone wall surrounds almost the entire site. A 24-metre-wide opening behind the group of high crosses opens up the cemetery to the surrounding landscape.
Occupancy
During the Wehrmacht's "Western Campaign", German troops captured the Île-de-France region in June 1940. The German administrative bodies for occupied France were concentrated in Paris, the center of Île-de-France. Most of the resistance groups were also located there. The "Résistance" stepped up its activities from 1943 onwards, as the defeat of Germany gradually became apparent. Allied and French troops liberated Île-de-France - and with it Paris - at the end of August 1944.
In the same year, the 1st US Army laid out a provisional cemetery in Solers. The American soldiers buried there were transferred to the Epinal military cemetery in 1948. The German graves remained under French administration. Additional burials from the surrounding area and from the towns of Troyes and Chartres followed. German soldiers who had died in the fighting in the Marne region in June 1940 were also reburied in Solers. Of the 53 dead buried in the common grave, 40 are unknown.
In France, the Second World War claimed around 240,000 German and around 255,000 French victims.
History
Two war cemetery agreements regulate the expansion and preservation of German war cemeteries in France. They form the basis for the work of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. (German War Graves Commission). in 1975, 22 sites for the dead of the Second World War were completed. The Giffertwald cemetery (Spicherer Höhen) was added in 1998. The Solers war cemetery was opened to the public on July 28, 1962.
Special feature
A concrete glass window in the entrance hall has a special effect. It takes up an entire wall surface. The theme of the mosaic of colored, dark glass is the resurrection of Christ.
