The German Dead of Verdun | History Traveler Episode 306
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- Опубликовано: 17 окт 2023
- If you've watched this channel for any amount of time, you know that we like to visit cemeteries. Especially military cemeteries. In this episode, we're taking a look at a German cemetery in Verdun that probably doesn't get much attention and along the way, we're making a connection that makes the whole thing a bit personal.
This episode was produced in partnership with The Gettysburg Museum of History. See how you can support history education & artifact preservation by visiting their website & store at www.gettysburgmuseumofhistory...
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If this was taught thoroughly in schools today, maybe the world wouldnt be so close to travelling down the same path again.
WTF are you on about?
Are you saying WWI isn't taught in schools?
Did you attend school at any point?
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The operative word is THOROUGHLY
@@francesco245 im talking about history and warfare period. Pay attention
@@francesco245how thorough were your lessons about WW1 in school? Mine were actually pretty good but, that doesn’t mean everyone had the same lessons as you or I. OP makes a very valid point. Most kids forget their lessons about WW1 once they’ve passed their courses…
@francesco245 we weren't taught anything in school about WWI or WWII, when I was in school back in tge late 60's yo early 70's. Get a grip!
If you're trying to dig deeper into the history of Michael Huber, maybe this helps: On the burial card it says he's a farmers son from Redlhub. This place (not much more than a farm actually) is now called Kudlhub, part of the village of Arnstorf in Bavaria. Maybe he was even my distant relative, since my Grandpas name was Huber and he was roughly from the area. But Huber in Bavaria is like Smith in the US.
Wow! Thanks!
Thanks for adding very interesting details to the story.
@@TheHistoryUnderground jäger is the German word for Hunter and not likely a name, but rather some special soldier like a Pioneer, the other Michael Huber had the word Infanterist after his name (which denotes infantry) FYI
My Grandfather and Uncle were born in Kempten, Bavaria. They were drafted into the German army during WW1. Both were at the front and both survived the war. They eventually came to the US in the early 20's and lived in Buffalo, NY where they lived a happy life. Both were really good men who had experienced the horror of war. It is because of them that I learned at a young age that war and imperialism is the failure of civilization and a reversion to hate; which is our cruelest base emotion. Thanks again JD.
I'm always impressed by the respect you show, JD. For all sides in a battle.
ofc..they were all young men forced to fight for their own countries..most of them got nothing with the politics of their leaders...just a duty to their homeland.
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The giant wall with thousands of names just hits you in the heart!
The sorrow for all those families.
Like you said JD, the tragedy that was WW1.
...and in a few years the same will be in Ukraine and Russia....nothing but nothing learned 😢
The older I get the less control I have of my emotions. I cry at the slightest dang thing anymore and there being over 7000 people there made me think of the thousands more that grieved for them.
Sad indeed.
I loved this segment! MY Grand Uncle Ludwig Ruland was killed in action 24 February 1916 • beaumont en verdunois, France
Killed in Action Serving as a Gefreiter in the Infantry, Regiment 117, 25th Division (Hessen), XVIII Army Corps, German Empire.
Ludwig's remains are unknown and unidentified (Source: Volksbund) however he is memorialized at Ville Devant Chaumont, German War Cemetery.
"Old men declare war. But it is the young who must fight and die." -Herbert Hoover
The enormity of what happened there is communicated by the size of the type on those huge tablets; stunning. JD, you constructed this story very well.
"Jäger" is a rank (which is a private in a Jäger regiment), not a middle name. Your Michael Huber is likely the other name with "Infanterist" listed after the name on the panel. An "Infanterist" is a private in an Infantry regiment, and as your card lists Huber belonging to the 13th Infantry Regiment, that Huber is clearly your man. The death card identifies Huber as a "Soldat" which is translated as soldier but was interchangeable with the rank of private as well. You looked at many grave markers in the video and lots of them listed the soldiers rank as "Pionier" which is a private in a combat engineer unit, or "Kanonier" which is a private in an artillery regiment, so for your viewers, these are ranks that they are seeing. I've been to this cemetery, as well as a great many more all along the old western front, and the Germans are fairly consistent in adding the soldier's rank, if known, to grave markers.
I'm impressed this cemetery made it through WW2, (unless the gravestones were erected after The War). Every time I see a new video has come out, I'm excited. But by the end of each one, I just am overwhelmed by the sadness and soberness of war.
Every life lost in war is a tragedy, no matter what side you were on. Those men were somebody's son, brother, father, or friend. Thank you, JD, for telling their story with such sensitivity. I hope we as human beings come to realize that killing each other is not the answer.
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Tell that to the people brutalized by the Nazis.
@@coolbreeze2.0-mortemadfasc13 - No Nazis in this cemetery. This was a WWI cemetery.
Once again J.D. you bring enlightenment to the absolute horror that was WW1, what those men endured on both sides was unimaginable. Thanks for bringing the personal side to the story by bringing those funerary cards, nothing like a picture of a man to put to a name.
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Ive been to Verdun. Ive seen the mass graves. Ive seen the oblivious that is their and ive looked at all the bones through the tiny little window. It was a very humbling experience and feeling. It give you chills up your spine. An eerie feeling. The loss of life for what?
For nothing, that war was beyond pointless.
JD, thanks to you Mr. Haslbeck is now not lost to history, maybe some of his descendants will see this video. Thanks again for such a fine watch.
The first time I visited a German cemetery, that was back in the early seventies, the things that struck me was how stark they are and that on every cross there were four names.
I had read that it was Imperial German practice to bury their war dead near a rail line so that they could be moved and for ease of locating the graves.
Burying the Christian and Jewish soldiers together was something I wasn’t expecting to see. Fighting together as soldiers regardless of their religion makes you stop and think.
To know 20 years later all that would change because of one evil little man.
These videos are amazing. 👍😊
One little man?
The majority of the German nation.
Indeed, but it wasn't just an evil little man, Hitler was the top of an iceberg, that is rooted in German philosophy from the 19th Century.
The Jewish soldiers were just as patriotic as their Christian comrades. Many of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust were highly decorated veterans of the First World War and Jewish families whose relatives died for Germany in the war.
Thank you JD for showing the humanity of these very young gentlemen!!! We have to remember that these men we sons, fathers and someone's beloved family!!!! They fought for their country and their bravery was a true and valid sacrifice!!! You keep making your wonderful content and I will keep watching and learning!!!! Thanks from Michigan!!!!
Dance Dr. J.D., greetings again from Michigan👍🏾💯
@scottklocke891 thanks JD !!!! I am in Grand Rapids!!!! Hope you are having a great day fellow history lover!!!!!!!
I couldn't help but think of the sheer futility of the Battle of Verdun and the waste of so many precious lives. All of these men were part of a cold calculation by the German high command to 'bleed the French army white' which became a disaster for both sides. These boys were really just numbers to those men. The tragedy is heartbreaking.
Brutal.
This was my grandpa's war. Thank you for taking the time to remember it.
thx. I've visited this grave yard in 1976 in search of the grave of my great-grand father who was killed in an artillerie barage in 1916 close to Verdun. We where very close on this one as we found a matching name and death date, but one sillable. The Sir name ended with an N instead of my R. Very little has changes in all these years. Good to see that they are still well maintained and even some flowers. I remember there was a guest book in the left gate post (visible at 11:04).
Another great video.
An unusual cemetery to visit is the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery near Ypres.
It’s called Bedford House Cemetery, named by the British. Pre WW1 is was a large Manor House that was destroyed in the fighting but the basement was used as a field hospital.
The unusual thing with this cemetery is that the dead are still buried where they were initially buried, so the headstones are not in neat lines/rows as normally found in a military cemetery.
Also in the cemetery are approximately 70 WW2 British soldiers who were part of the rear guard of the Dunkirk evacuations, who knew that they would not be part of the evacuation but to remain and fight till the end.
Their headstones are positioned in the shape of a horse shoe in the. Enter of the cemetery.
My great uncles, brothers, fought in WW1 - Canadians...one was gassed at Vimy and one was taken prisoner at Passendaele. Both survived
the war are buried together with their wives and children...I honor them on Rememberance Day, but their memories live day to day, and will never be forgotten..
I have visited the German cemeteries in and around The Somme and its just shows how things changed as there was a lot of Jewish soldiers buried there. How quickly they forgot all this.
Very much so.
Hope you are going to the ossuary. It’s so moving and terrifying. It truly gives you a stark view of the human impact of the war. Also there is still a crew that is finding and destroying live ammunition more than 100 years later.
Sobering reminder of the cost and tragedy of war.
“It is well that war is so terrible, else we should grow too fond of it.”
-R. E. Lee
Thanks J.D.
My grandfather fought in Germany during WWI. His parents had immigrated to USA just 30 years before. One of his brothers were born in Germany so he was fighting some of his 1st cousins and Uncles. After the war he helped keep them alive by bringing them food when he had to stay and do policing of the area. It was a sad time when brothers were fighting brothers. “Never forget history or it will be repeated”.
I'm serious dude, The Channel should be taught as an advanced College History course!
The Ossuary at Douaumont also contains many thousands of German dead buried with those of France.
There are also a further 679 in Fort Douaumont itself, in one of the fort’s tunnels, who died in an ammunition explosion among men resting and taking shelter from the near-constant bombardments (it was also being used as an aid station and supply dump). It is said a cooking fire ignited grenades and flamethrower fuel, which further ignited an ammunition cache. An additional 1800 were left wounded. At the time the German army ended up walling-up that section of the tunnel with the dead in and so it remains today within the fort.
Of course the land itself is the largest of the mass graves. Months and months of titanic bombardments over the same area which erased villages and landscapes from the map simply churned up and destroyed human war dead, making recovery an impossible task. As in many WW1 battlefields sometimes hastily-dug battlefield graves were obliterated by shellfire, with corpses and bones being disinterred, reburied by debris then disinterred again & again.
I’ve been to 20 or 30 British military cemeteries from the Great War. Around the Somme and Ypres. I’ve walked the battlefields. My grandfather was at both of these horrific battles as part of 1st battalion Welsh Guards, a Lance Corporal. Survived both. The cemeteries must be visited to honour the sacrifices of those young men
The casualties on both the German and French sides at Verdun were astronomical (143,000 and 164,000 respectively). WW1 truly was a war of annihilation of your opponents army. WW2 became a "total war" where your countries infrastructure and population became fair game.
Another fascinating video as always. Thank you so much JD. Loving this series
Another great episode, JD. Love your work. Thank you for your hard work putting these together.
We really appreciate what you are doing. My great grandfather was a German soldier and unfortunately I know little about him.
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Have been to that cemetery myself... sobering is an understatement, but the best way I can describe it. Nicely done.
Absolutely brilliant episode. Thank you
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Howdy J.D. and fascinating stop. Great way to put a face to the losses of war and a one time enemy. The pain of loss is equal on both sides. Great episode.
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War is and always will be the greatest tragedy of mankind. May the lost in all battles from all sides in all wars rest in eternal heavenly peace, forever and ever.
Amen.
The 4/90 on Arthur Kaufmann’s gravestone some in the comments mention is ‘Block 4, Grave 90’. It’s so you can locate it easily via the online search or a cemetery register, probably intended for relatives etc.
Thank you always such more history coming from your vids, we never miss them, thank you once again
Well done JD!!! Your appreciation for detail is amazing! Keep up the great work!
Excellent video, thank you for sharing!
Stunning and beautiful. Thank you, JD.
Beautifully told, JD. Thoughtful and sensitive.
Thank you JD, your videos are always as relevant, respectful and high quality.
Hey JD, I was at the GMH and the WW2 museum this past weekend and you and Erik's place is as advertised. There are a lot of places there but nothing even scratches the surface of what there is to see in GMH. It took me nearly 2 hours to put my eyes on everything and I know I still missed something. Erik is absolutely the king around there. Also, great series on WW1
Thanks! So glad that you enjoyed it!
Love watching your vids mate. Absolutely brilliant. Much better than any history channel
When I visited Verdun the Museum was amazing, I hope you've filmed a video there for a future episode, plus all the graves around the mausoleum was something else also.
Really enjoyed the video mate can't wait for the next one
During WWI, there were many Jewish men who fought beside their fellow German people. Otto Frank was one of those such men.
Crazy how much the country would change in the next few decades.
Very good video my friend , I really love the way you present the artifacts you bring back with you. THANK YOU FRANK FROM MONTANA........
Thanks for the visual reminder of this fight. Very powerful the personal stories. Thank you.
Our pleasure!
You should go visit the bayonet trench memorial at Verdun. Bayonet Trench is located on the north facing slope of the Ravin de la Dame, a few hundred meters north of the Douaumont Necropolis. It blew me away when I saw it during my visit there.
I’m here because I come from the channel “Lamont on the run” he mentioned you, I’m glad I found you I’m loving your videos. Also Lamont wants to get in contact with you because he wants to congratulate you for your number of subscribers he wants to send you a hat 🧢 he said that he wants to make for you for making that amount of subscribers without cheating. Great work I am enjoying your videos 🙌😊🙌 I just subscribed too YAY!! 😃
Much respect. Thank you for sharing.
Saw my first WWII German cemetary in Sept. of this year (2023) it was just a humbling experiance to stand among these heros who answered the call and sacrificed everything for country.
Answered what call exactly?
Always enjoy these videos!
Another amazing episode JD, Loved it!
This is a depressing, but so important video you made. Thank You! There's a Swedish heavy metal band, Sabaton, and the majority of their songs describe the efforts of common soldiers caught in terrible situations. Their last two albums are about WW1. They also have a history channel to give the background of the songs. Two of the most recent are "Christmas Truce" and "1916". They also have a song "The Fields of Verdun." Of the songs, "Christmas Truce" is especially poignant, about the December 1914 Christmas, when German soldiers started singing Christmas carols, and the French/Brits joined them. They agreed to let each other out of the trenches, into No Man's Land, to retrieve their dead, exchange small gifts, and to play soccer. Their commanders ordered them back. Many of the soldiers refused to continue firing on their new friends. Or, they fired too high to hurt anyone. German soldiers had to be re-assigned, away from the "enemy" whom they had come to respect, and not want to kill. It's a pity the Christmas Truce didn't become permanent.
Truly excellent and I learn so much.
Thank you JD . Very great artifacts from WW1 The funeral notices. Thanks for sharing this.
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My grandfather, Alois Kessler, was wounded at Verdun. Bad enough that he could no longer fight and spent the rest of the war at the Hauptwache in Frankfurt.
I believe you are right in that not to many people visit cemeteries. I do my best to learn of the cemeteries near me. I find them very peaceful and a good place to contemplate the history contained in them. Thank you for this visit.
*too
@@frontenac5083 Get a life!
Excellent as always , i share the interest in these places, sad that the latter Soldat is forgotten in the war graves RIP Johan
When I saw the grave marker for the Jewish soldier, I thought, "Wow, he fought for Germany?" Then I remembered that I know vety little about WW1.
Keep teaching.
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I went TDY to Latvia and found a similar WWI German cemetery along a two lane road/highway in the country. It was a strange and very sad place.
Location to tracks hypotheses was what I thought when you first mentioned it. Maybe just out of available convenience. Interesting
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What a great video, this a been a wonderful series JD great work Thank you for bringing the Great War to the forefront
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Sad and touching. Thanks JD
Excellent effort.
well done JD as always 👏
There has not been one of your videos did I have not learned a lot from. I'm not trying to say that I thought I knew everything but I am saying that I enjoy watching your videos. Each one is very interesting
Thanks!
Hi JD! Having been to that cemetery with a school class decades ago we came up with the group opinion that the fact the number of stones not matching the number stated to be there as being due to the Jewish headstones having been removed at one time and only some of them replaced. Which does seem to be possible's as it seems there are more of the headstone shaped markers in your video than I recall being there in the mid 80's when I only recall seeing 1 or 2.
Thank you for the respect. Am first generation Canadian, both parents came from Germany. Am sure I lost relatives in both Wars and both my grandfather and great uncle fought on the eastern front. Have subbed you and look forward to watching your videos.
Another superb job on your part JD to bring history, military history of battle and the many YOUNG lives lost. YOU do great work!
Your videos are so interesting, I am a student of History and your videos are my favorites.
Glad you like them!
Such respect to have every name inscribed on the wall! Made me think of the Vietnam Wall.
Awesome video, as always, JD. The one thought that I always walk away with after seeing these "enemy" grave yards is the mothers who will never really know the fate or visit their sons compounded with losing the war and bearing the shame of the world. Germany had to do this on the grand stage twice. Perhaps that is the true cost to the German in 1918 and 1945. Sure, Allied mothers had the same loss of children, but America was able to move on helping war torn families. Don't start wars is the moral imperative.
Sad all around.
Thank you for your sharing. When I was there I was really astonished of the different cemetery "design". In few kilometers you can visit French, German and US cemetery. French an US ones are so ostentatious. Germans ones are so inconspicuous. Thanks to you and your team.
Guess that's because the German cemeteries are on French soil and they were not welcomed by the French after WW1. Some of the German war memorials were removed after the war.
That was interesting. Very sobering. Thank you
Thanks, interesting, I stopped there on a motorcycle trip a few weeks ago and cool to see this
So so sad. I had relatives on both sides in World War I. It seemed logical to the people at the time, but we now have a hard time making sense of it now.
just stumbled over your channel; great work!
cause you mentioned it once: I really like your accent/your pronuciation of teutonic (aka "german") words! :)
Ha! Thanks.
It is a post WW1 concentration wargrave site (est. 1920). Most of the original german wartime gravesites were moved to newly allocated sites as the french did have a policy not to allocate too much ground to their erstwhile enemy. That also explains why you would find many Kameradengraben at those locations, given the lack of space for individual graves.
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Another reverent episode thank you
All in all that is a pretty impressive cemetery but you are correct at first glance pretty plain. Thanks for these Verdun videos
I love your channel I just started following it like a few days ago I am a huge history buff myself I love learning about the presidents and the wars like the civil war ww1 and 2 the revolutionary war I hope you continue to make more soon you said that your favorite president is Theodore Roosevelt well mine is james Madison I like others like Anne Frank Coolidge Hoover Hayes the signing of the declaration of independence and the constitution keep up the great work and I can't wait to see more thank you so very much for this channel
A good photo of Michael huber. The light evenly splits his body from
Belt buckle to the bridge of his nose.
Interesting. If the location was used because it was handy using the railway. It would make seance the soldiers buried against the tracks were the last group layed to rest.
Made sense to me.
excellent musicalization !!
Thank you! ❤
There is a cemetery in the Town of Foy near Bastogne and the occupants are tripled stacked.
Of course, officers on top.
I love visiting cemeteries. Where did you come across the funeral cards, through Erik? It made the visit a lot more interesting.
Yesterday I had some free time so I took a page out of your book and visited a nearby cemetery. I did a little research beforehand and found there was a memorial for the US Battleship Maine, that was blown up in Havana harbor, eventually tipping off the Spanish American War. There were approximately 150 grave markers there, more than half of the 266 crew killed in the explosion. I also discovered the Cuban Martyrs plot, honoring the thousands of Cubans who fought against Spain for their independence.
Wow! As for the funeral cards, I picked them up on eBay.
Ive been there. The whole area is a great trip. Can dobthe whole area in 2 to 3 days. Everything is surprisingly close together. Beautiful area, great food
Respect to all the men & women on ALL sides who died in the great war😢🇨🇦🇺🇸🇬🇧🇩🇪🇨🇮🇲🇨
Shoutout to Fabian Ware for taking on one of the most horrible task imaginable and trying his best to give the British families at home some closure of knowing where their fallen son was buried. It was a monumental task to find and identify bodies especially in the horrid state the conditions of WW1 would leave them in. Up until WW1 the most common way of burial for the enlisted was in mass graves. Nowadays we’d cringe at that but just think of how difficult it was to clean up a battlefield with thousands of corpses back then. That’s why I consider Fabian Ware just as much a hero as any other man in frontline duty
Small but simple cemetery indeed. That big wall with the names is cool, but bittersweet since there are unknown soldiers. Most of those were just kids although 25 might be considered as ‘old men’
Very good video.
I learned from your channel and others, that a lot of these are relocated and the remains, usually, are just bones, so one location could probably hold several remains, and I have seen one where the cross said there were like a hundred unknown ?, this was just one marker. At least they were given a decent burial. Some, video, where the people are digging up battle areas and finding skeletons where they fell.