Historical information
During the heavy fighting in the winter and spring of 1945 along the
Luxembourg-Belgian and Luxembourg-German borders, the American war grave
and burial service recovered the bodies of their own as well as German
victims of war from the fighting zone and buried these in two provisional
cemeteries in their own military zone. They are located approx. 1,5 km
apart in two adjacent municipalities; the German in Sandweiler, the Americans
in Hamm.
When the US Army Burial Service had completed its work, the German cemetery
totaled 5.599 graves. It was divided up into several blocks of 300 graves,
each one being identified by a small wooden cross.
In 1952 an agreement was signed between the governments of the Dukedom
of Luxembourg and the Federal Republic of Germany with respect to the
provision for the German soldiers graves on Luxembourg territory.
In addition to those German soldiers buried in common graves in Sandweiler,
there were also at that time graves of German soldiers in 150 other Luxembourg
municipalities with a total of 5.286 dead. These were
mostly mass graves for which only incomplete records were available.
The Volksbund
Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (German Association for the Provision
of War Graves) transferred these bodies to graves in Sandweiler where
sufficient grounds were available for expansion to enable a cemetery
for German soldiers to be finally planned. This operation also offered
the opportunity of identifying the unknown dead.
The laying out of the cemetery was begun in May 1952. It was the first
cemetery of the 1939/45 war which the Volksbund had been able to build
outside of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The ceremonial opening took
place in June, 1955 in the presence of more than 2.000 relatives of the
dead, whom the Volksbund had brought to Sandweiler in special trains.
With them came also delegations of school children from every German
federal state. (In the development of the cemetery the Volksbund made
use of donations by German school children to a considerable extent.
A narrow path through the wood leads to the entrance with its wall to
the front. In the center is a narrow gate with hand-forged copper railings
through which the visitor can see the 5 m high stone cross at the end
of the graveyard.
The upper end of the cemetery is terminated by a comrades’ grave
in front of which stands the over-towering cross on a 2 meter high, circular
base.
Of the 10.913 German soldiers buried at Sandweiler 4.829 of these are
in the large comrades’ grave.
The comrades’ grave is located behind the large cross.
Of the 4.829
dead buried here 4.014 are identified by name. These names are listed
on bronze plaques in the enclosure wall of the comrades’ grave.
A few steps lead up to the inscription on the sarcophagus stone on the
comrades’ grave, which reads :
"HERE REST IN A COMMON GRAVE
4.829 GERMAN SOLDIERS OF THE WORLD WAR 1939-1945".
A book entitled "50
years of the cemetery Sandweiler/Luxembourg" is available for free
in the chapel, it includes the history of all military cemeteries in
Luxembourg, the personal story of some German soldiers as well as activities
of the German Association for the Provision of War Graves.
Location information
Address: Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof; L-5280 Sandweiler; Tel: (+352)
35 50 07; Fax: (+352) 35 05 54.
1,5 km away from Sandweiler is located the US Military Cemetery of Hamm.
