German Cemetery 1939-45, Pornichet, Saint-Nazaire.

Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge, German War Graves Commission.

 

 

 

 

 

Caroline Serr 30years. Albert Severin 45years. Marta Sollner 76years? Helene Schmidt 34years. Paul Vogelbacher 50years. Maria Volker 27years. Jakob Witz 80years. Caroline Wolf 53years.

detail

The Germans were here to stay and they started to lay out cemeteries, one that I have found is 1941 ERBAUT DURCHDIE ORG. TODT (1941 Built through [by] Todt. organisation.) ENTWURFU.AUSFUHRUNG KURZ UND MÜLLER(Designed by KURZ UND MÜLLER). But as the war went on and they started to lose, there was the sad state of affairs, bodies were just dumped and collected later and a lot were unknown as well. After the war, Allied cemeteries were starting to be built and the Federal German Government, which at the time was not so well off as it is now. Had to buy the land from the local countries (the Allies were given the land in perpetuity) and used their youth organisations to help to lay the cemeteries out. Today its a professional organisation just like our own CWGC and the French "Nécropoles Nationales". Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (VDK) is dedicated to the task of recording, maintaining and caring for the graves of German war casualties abroad.