War Dead and the Restoration of Military Cemeteries in Eastern Europe

Abstract

This article examines the rebuilding of World War II cemeteries and mass graves. It compares the cult of the war dead in Germany, Romania and Russia and analyses examples of restorations of war cemeteries by these countries in Moldova. This reveals how the former war allies and adversaries now collaborate, as well as their attempts to overcome the political and ideological divides of recent decades through the reburial and remembrance of the war dead. The search for the war dead occurred at a time when each of these countries was “coming to terms” with its recent totalitarian past and, at the same time, was looking for recognition in a new international context. The convergence of the private and the political in the remembrance of the dead led at times to reconciliatory discourses and at others to a restatement of the “sacredness” of the past or of exclusivist national ideals.

Keywords:

• War Dead
• Military Cemeteries
• Public and Private Remembrance

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Professor Arfon E. Rees, my PhD supervisor at the European University Institute, Florence, for his invaluable advice during the course of this research. I thank the editors of this special issue Rozita Dimova and Ludmila Cojocaru as well as, Julian Welch for their generous support in editing this volume and for their assistance in the painstaking process of rewriting this article. The editors of History and Anthropology have been extremely helpful with their feedback and I am grateful for their revisions of the paper. I thank Julian Welch for bringing to my attention David Malouf's novel Ransom. This book is an inspiring meditation on Priam's journey to Achilles to ask for the return of Hector's body. The novel has been invaluable to my understanding of this subject.

Notes

For an analysis of the displacement of the dead in Germany, see Confino, Betts, and Schumann (2008).

For example, “Emperor's Oaks” were planted after the Franco-Prussian war of 1870–1871 or the soldiers were buried by oaks and beeches. On the relationship between nature and funerary architecture in Germany, see Brands (2001).

George Mosse referred to Hans Grassel's “Waldfriedhof” (forest cemetery), designed in Munich in 1907 (see Mosse 1979, 13).

For more on war remembrance and national ideas in Germany, see Goebel (2007).

This information is available at www.volksbund.de/kurzprofil/homepage_en.asp

At the request of a dead serviceman's family, it is possible to repatriate his remains to Germany, with the family covering the cost. Still, the process is complicated; as the Volksbund's representatives confirmed, there have only been approximately 150 cases of the repatriation of remains in the past 20 years.

The citation “Neamul devine etern prin cultul eroilor” (“The nation becomes eternal through the heroes’ cult”) is used by the National Office for the Heroes Cult as an emblem.

For a detailed account on the monument of the Unknown Soldier from Buchares, see http://www.once.ro/mormantul_ostasului_necunoscut.php

I am translating the official name of Oficiul Naţional pentru Cultul Eroilor as the National Office for the Heroes' Cult, although the organization itself uses in English the name National Office for Heroes' Memory.

Interview by the author with Vasile Burduja, Orthodox priest of the Metropolitan Church of Basarabia, Cania, Moldova, October 2009.

Interview by the author with Vasile Burduja, Orthodox priest of the Metropolitan Church of Basarabia, Cania, Moldova, October 2009.

Citation from the statement of the President of Romania at the inauguration of the Romanian Honorary Cemetery at Cania (Moldova), October 25, 2009, http://www.presidency.ro/?_RID=det&tb=date&id=11572 &_PRID=lazi (accessed November 25, 2009).

See the reports of the Romanian Royal House about the inauguration of the cemetery at http://casa-regala.blogspot.com/2009/11/inaugurarea-cimitirului-ostasilor.html (accessed November 30, 2009); see also the report of Claudiu Mihail Zaharia in the Romanian parliament following the inauguration of the cemetery in Țiganca, http://www.cdep.ro/pls/steno/steno.stenograma?ids=6114&idm=1,34&idl=1 (accessed November 30, 2009).

For a description of the inauguration ceremony, see http://casa-regala.blogspot.com/2009/11/inaugurarea-cimitirului-ostasilor.html (accessed November 30, 2009).

See also the report of Aneta Grosu on the reactions in the media and of civil society to the inauguration of the cemetery in Ţiganca (Ziarul de Gardă, June 8, 2006).

These are the statistics for 1 January 2007 provided by the head of the Military and Memorial Center of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Alexandr Kirilin. For more information, see Мухин (2007).

Interview by the author with Nicolae Guţul, the Head of the Organization for the protection of Slavs Rights VECE, August 2006.

Interview by the author with Nicolae Guţul, the Head of the Organization for the protection of Slavs Rights VECE, August 2006.