Vignemont

Département Oise 5333 German war dead The French cemetery contains 5680 fallen soldiers, including 10 Englishmen. The German military cemetery at Vignemont was established in April 1918 at the same time as the adjacent French cemetery by the French medical services and was expanded by the French military authorities in 1919 and 1920 by adding beds from more than 100 communal areas within a radius of up to 50 kilometers. Of all the German war cemeteries of the First World War, the cemetery is closest to Paris. Only a few of those resting here fell during the German advance in August and September 1914 and in the battles near Roye and Noyon in the winter of 1914-1915. The vast majority of the dead lost their lives in 1918 during the "Great Battle of France" in March, in the "Battle of Noyon" in June and in the heavy defensive fighting in July and August 1918. German prisoners of war who died in French military hospitals were also buried here. The dead of 1914 belonged to the Prussian Guard and divisions from Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck as well as cavalry regiments from Pomerania and Mecklenburg. The home garrisons of those who fell in 1918 were in East and West Prussia, Pomerania, Schleswig-Holstein, Brandenburg, Hanover, Oldenburg, East Frisia, Württemberg and Berlin, as well as in the Hanseatic cities of Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck. Repair work between the wars The Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. (German War Graves Commission) carried out the first work to improve the condition of the cemetery on the basis of an agreement reached with the French military authorities in 1926. This involved extensive planting of trees and hedges, greening of graves and paths, landscaping of the entrance area with a forged gate and natural stone wing walls, and edging of the communal graves with a natural stone wall. However, the problem of permanently marking the graves remained unresolved due to a lack of foreign currency and the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. Final design Following the conclusion of the Franco-German War Graves Agreement of July 19, 1966, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. - financially supported by the German government - was able to undertake the final design of the German military cemeteries of the First World War in France. In addition to a fundamental landscaping overhaul, the previous temporary wooden grave markers were replaced in 1976 with natural stone crosses engraved with the names and dates of those buried here. Of the 5,333 fallen, 3,802 rest in individual graves; 13 remain unnamed. In the common grave with 1,531 victims, only 116 are known by name. For religious reasons, the 14 graves of the fallen of the Jewish faith were given a gravestone made of natural stone instead of a cross, the Hebrew characters of which read: 1 (above) "Here rests buried .... ." 2. (below) "May his soul be included in the circle of the living." Maintenance: The cemetery is constantly maintained by the Volksbund's maintenance service.