German War Grave Aid

[Zyklop]

The Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. takes care of German War Graves around Europe.
Although it´s a bit too political correct in its publications when it comes to WW2, it basically is a worthwile organisation.

Minimal Membership fee is 6€ per year. Members receive a booklet every 3 month about activities of the Volksbund as well as invitations to help maintaining German graveyards around Europe.

One can also search for graves of fallen relatives on their site.

The Volksbund Deutsche
Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. ...

The Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. is a humanitarian organisation whose task is to register, maintain and care for the graves of German war dead abroad. The Volksbund counsels dependants in questions of looking after war graves, provides advice for public and private agencies, supports international cooperation in the field of war graves care and promotes encounters of young people in cemeteries for the war dead. Today, the association has 1.3 million members and donors. It finances its work through their contributions and donations and through the revenues from annual household and street collections. The federal government helps where the Volksbund's own income is insufficient.

This private charity was founded on 16 December 1919. By the beginning of the 1930s it had already developed numerous war cemeteries. The leadership of the Volksbund was unable to escape the influence of the National Socialists after 1933. During the Second World War the work of the Volksbund was restricted. The Wehrmacht's own war graves service took over the establishment of military cemeteries.

It was not until 1946 that the Volksbund was able to resume its work. In a very short time it was successful in establishing more than 400 war cemeteries in Germany. In 1954, Konrad Adenauer, the German chancellor, commissioned the Volksbund with the task of searching for, securing and caring for German military cemeteries abroad.

The Volksbund carries out its work in Europe and North Africa in the framework of bilateral agreements. It now looks after about 842 military cemeteries in 44 countries with about 2 million dead. The diverse work of the association is carried out today by almost 10,000 honorary and 558 full-time employees.

After the political upheaval in eastern Europe the Volksbund was able to start its work in the countries in the former eastern bloc as well, in which nearly three million German soldiers were killed in World War II, nearly twice as many as the numbers buried in military cemeteries in western Europe. This task imposes great difficulties on the Volksbund. Many of the over 100,000 burial grounds are extremely difficult to
find, or have been destroyed, built on or plundered. In spite of this, in the last few years 300 cemeteries dating from World War II and 190 facilities from World War I in eastern, central and south-eastern Europe have been reconstructed or rebuilt. These include 48 mass graves. About 32 cemeteries are at present under construction or being repaired. About 416.000 bodies have been buried in new graves.

In establishing and maintaining these graves the aim of the Volksbund is to keep the memory of the war dead alive. The living are to be reminded of the past when they see these huge cemeteries and confronted with the consequences of war and violence.

To do this the Volksbund organises among other things trips to war cemeteries, arranges national and international youth camps to look after the cemeteries and informs students in schools and leisure centres. It has also established four meeting centres for young people in cemeteries outside Germany where young people can find the ideal conditions for peace pedagogical projects.

The day of national mourning in Germany which the Volksbund organises every year throughout the country and which is observed by a great number of important political and social institutions and the general public, is a day of remembrance and a reminder of the necessity of peace.

http://www.volksbund.de/kurzprofil/homepage_en.asp

[Dr. Solar Wolff]

This sounds like something any people should do if they intend to maintain their culture and it sounds like a positive thing.