Question About American WWI Cemeteries During WWII

[max]

I just watched a very good show about some of our WWI cemeteries that are located in France. I was just curious as to how these cemeteries were treated during WWII. Were any of them damaged?

 

[DWalt]

Interesting question. I suppose that if they had been desecrated or destroyed by the Germans we all would have known about it.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I wondered about the same thing a few years ago. I saw a show on our military cemeteries in France, and they showed a WWI German Cemetery. I noticed that the German Christians and German Jews were mixed to gather as they were in civilian life, and the Jewish head stones were not defaced. I figured, If the nazis left them alone, our honored dead were safe!

Ivan

 

[bigwheelzip]

Graves were respected but certain monuments were destroyed or defaced. The reason was that by word or image, they denigrated the Germans/Germany, as opposed to just honoring the dead.

The WWI 2nd Australian Division memorial at St Quentin depicting an Australian bayonetting a German Eagle was the type of thing destroyed by the occupying Germans during WWII.

 

[max]

I did some quick research and it seems that the Germans respected the cemeteries. The staffs were allowed to continue working and the German troops were under orders not to damage the property.