WAR GRAVES WW2 PAPER

[Stanley]

On war graves in France and Belgium, I'll first give some information from before WW2 which is relevant.
 
After WW1, the vast majority of gardeners and administrative staff were British ex-servicemen.  Many of them married local girls and became part of their local communities.  There was even a school for their children attached to St George's Memorial Church in Ypres, built and mainly funded by Old Etonians.
 
http://melbourneblogger.blogspot.com/20 ... chool.html
 
>From the outbreak of hostilities until the 'Phoney War' ended in May/June 1940 the Commission's work carried on almost as normal and most of the staff, particularly those who were married to local wives, and who had children, stayed on.
 
When the German invasion of Western Europe began in earnest a pre-arranged plan was put into force and the majority of Commission staff (about 500) and their families were evacuated back to the UK. A small number stayed on.  Of these some were taken prisoner and interned, particularly those who were in the direct line of advance of the German forces, or whose work was in more remote places.  Most of these were later exchanged and returned to Britain.
 
There is no evidence that the Germans carried out any deliberate desecration to cemeteries or monuments, although some, which had prominent buildings, and were used by the allies, or the Germans, as observation posts or defensive positions, were damaged by shells and small arms fire. It's probable that some of this damage was also inflicted by Allied action.  The nightly Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate in Ypres was banned, but on the day that the Allies retook the town, was started again. 
 
During the occupation it again seems that the Germans did nothing to harm the cemeteries and even allowed local communities to maintain them if they wished to do so, provided that this did not impede their war work.  There's even evidence that the Germans themselves arranged for care to be given to some sites.
 
It also seems that they were impressed to find that their own WW1 casualties, buried in the Commission cemeteries, had been treated with the same respect and dignity as the British & Commonwealth dead.  There's even one site which contains more German than Allied graves. This may have had some influence on their actions, although it's probably as much a respect for men who had died honourably in the service of their country, and in any case, the whole subject would not be high on their agenda.
 
In 1944, as territory was regained by the Allies, Commission staff began to return to France and Belgium.  They found the sites in anything from reasonably good, to totally overgrown but within a few months most cemeteries were back in a reasonable state and repairs to those damaged was gradually carried out. Some of the 'scars' were left as a memorial to that part of their history.
 
An interesting little story relates to the Germans treatment of their own cemeteries.  Apparently some of the more fanatical Nazis, presumably SS, said that Jewish graves in their own sites should be removed. The Army High Command denied this saying that they had died in the service of their own country and deserved to be left in peace.
 
So, whatever other atrocities and horrors took place, including the use of forced labour on a huge scale, the German occupying forces behaved honourably in the matter of war graves.
 
By the 1960s many of the ex-servicemen had reached retirement age and the last ones left in the 1980s. The cemeteries are now cared for by local Belgian and French contractors to the high standards we have come to automatically expect. The wonderfully named German equivalent of the CWGC, the 'Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V.' contribute to the maintenance of German graves in British Cemeteries. 
 
Hope this helps.  It's a subject that hasn't been written on much.  I'm not sure what happened to cemeteries in other parts of the world, but I suspect that they were just ignored.
An interesting little byway.