While in Normandy, we stopped at three cemeteries: Canadian, German and American. The trip organizer has a booklet of assignments the students fill out as we go. The assignments in the cemeteries revolved around making connections with those who fought in World War II. They were asked to consider ages and ranks of those buried in each and also to compare the differnt cultures' perspectives on honoroing their dead. Our first stop of the entire trip was the Canadian cemetery in Beny-sur-Mer. It has a small and snug feeling to it. The stones are all white and give a lot information about the soldiers buried in each grave: name, rank, birthdate, death date, regiment, age at death and verse or saying chosen by their family. In reflecting back on this later the kids pointed out the graves felt more personal here.
Canadian Cemetery - Beny-sur-Mer
On our second morning we stopped at the German cemetery in La Cambre. This is a more recent addition to the trip after one of our German MKs pointed out in a past year that Germans died in the Normandy invasion too but from what the school showed them you would think only Allies died. So La Cambre was added to show that both sides lost significant numbers of soliders in the war. The cemetery looks like any German cemetery - the stones are in the ground rather than standing up. The key difference the kids noticed was the darkness of the area because the stones were all black. In most graves 2-3 solidiers are buried. And only their name, rank, birth date and death date are given. The kids felt this cemetery was more cold and regimented than the Canadian one. I had a conversation with one of our guys after he rudely and loudly asked "Where ALL these guys Nazis?" After I shussed him, we talked about how not all German soldiers were Nazis. Some were made to fight, some fought for their country but not for Hitler, etc.
Germany Cemetery La Cambre
Our last cemetery stop was the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach. Ironically some of the kids said they felt like they were coming home when they entered the Omaha Beach facility - ironic because they spend so much time trying not to be American. Their assignment here was to get an average of ages by surveying a row of 40+ gravestones and finding ages and ranks. Then they were to do the math to figure out the average age but also the average of privates vs. officers buried in their row. Purpose: to show how many young people their age died here. Some were astonished to find graves of 16 and 17 years olds who lied about their age to enlist. This made for good conversations as well. Our kids mentioned no one from this current generation would do that - so why did young men lie to get into a war? We talked about sacrifice and honor with the kids as we walked. Some of the kids encountered veterens while we were there. They had been told to be respectful but also not to be afraid to tell these men and women thank you for what they had done for us. This was our next to last stop on our Normandy tour, so by now the kids had a good picture of what occurred here on D-Day and they knew the gravity of what happened on the beach below the cemetery. They wound their way down the path to the beach and stood on the sand surveying the length of just one of 5 beaches involved in the Operation Overlord invasion, and they were awed by the number of men needed to take the beach. They turned to look at the cliffs and saw evidence of German gun emplacements and they wondered how anyone could make it across the beach alive. We saw the graves of civlians who came along beside the invasion force and lent a hand such as Red Cross nurses. We learned that there are 41 sets of brothers buried in the cemetery - we had watched parts of Saving Private Ryan the night before and the kids were hit by the number of families who lost more than one son on the beaches of Normandy. And we read of 2 fathers and sons buried side by side in the cemetery.
Normandy American Cemetery at Omaha Beach
Cemeteries don't make for the most fun field trips but they are a necessary part of learning about the past. We saw how three cultures honor their dead and we saw the row upon row of crosses, showing only a small portion of the sacrifice given on those momentous days in June 1944.
