Losy niemieckich cmentarzy wojennych z okresu I wojny światowej
Authors: Szymoniczek Joanna 
Published: January 2021

War graves and cemeteries depict a nation’s history. Fallen soldiers are buried far away from where they once lived, often in another country and the vast majority remain anonymous. Around 8.5 million soldiers died in World War I, 2 million of whom were German. They found their final resting place in cemeteries and graveyards or, sometimes, in nameless and forsaken graves scattered not only almost right across Europe, but also in many countries in other parts of the world. More than five hundred war cemeteries were located in Poland. Immediately after the war, their existence stirred no major emotions, albeit that there were some people who objected to their non-native character or to the very fact that it was the soldiers of other nations who were buried there. At that time, financial issues were a more significant problem. The number of war cemeteries in Poland was considerable. In accordance with humanitarian law, they had to be maintained by the state on the territory of which they were located. The authorities were unable to cope with all the obligations. There were a great many cemeteries and their maintenance and upkeep required substantial financial outlays. Efforts were undertaken anyway; involving the local authorities, local inhabitants and young people still at school, they aimed to carry out the necessary work and repairs. The situation began to change at the end of the nineteen thirties. On the part of the Germans, the less-than-ideal state of the German cemeteries was used for propaganda purposes, with reports of visits to Poland being presented in the press, making for an image of poverty, backwardness and a lack of respect for the soldiers’ final resting places. The outbreak of World War II changed the situation of the cemeteries. It was the Germans who then undertook their repair and restoration, on account of both their propaganda value and the fact than many of the newly fallen were also being buried in them. They were not to retain their new appearance for long. Having once again suffered destruction in 1944 and 1945, they were left in that condition over the subsequent decades. While they did not give rise to such emotions and controversies as the German cemeteries of World War II, nevertheless, because they were German cemeteries, they were not accorded the attention and care due to them. There existed an unwillingness to remember that Poles who had been forcibly conscripted to the Wehrmacht were also buried there. It was only the agreement included in the Joint Statement of the Polish Prime Minister, Tadeusz Mazowiecki and the German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, of 14 November 1989 and the Polish-German Treaty of Good Neighbourship and Friendly Cooperation (Vertrag über gute Nachbarschaft und freundschaftliche Zusammenarbeit) of 17 June 1991, which, between them, provided a comprehensive solution to all the issues related to the German cemeteries in Poland. While these initiatives emphasised the resolving of the issues related to the German World War II cemeteries, repairs to those from World War I have nevertheless also been underway since the nineteen nineties. However, the needs are so great that the involvement of the German party which has funded these efforts thus far is insufficient. The several decades over which these cemeteries were left without any care brought about their disappear from the landscape, while nature has also taken its course. Soldiers, volunteers and young people from Poland and Germany alike are now attempting to make up for the lost years and restore this element of the past of the Polish lands.