In Sandweiler, Luxembourg, there is the most striking scène one can imagine. On one side there is the Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial, where thousands of American soldiers who fell in WWII are buried. General Patton is buried there as well. It's a typical American war cemetery with the many white crosses as they are found in several spaces in the world.
Very special is that when one makes a short stroll in the warm summer sun, crossing the road, in less then a mile one encounters the Sandweiler German war cemetery. Practically within sight of each other American and German soldiers buried as neighbours, as brothers that fought and died together.
The American Cemetery was tight, filled with pride and very well maintained. No flaws, everything very neat. There were some tourists visiting the grave of General Patton. The white headstones reflected the warm July sun brightly, giving the whole scene an almost heavenly appearance.
The German cemetery was a surprise, almost to opposite of the American cemetery. There were trees, shadow and the walls and memorials as well as the grave stones were made of raw grey stones. There were some people, visiting graves. There were even graves that had flowers on them. The atmosphere was very peaceful and to me even endearing.
There were two sides of the story, back then as much as it is right now. Two completely different burial sites, different approaches and different atmosphere. There were many similarities as well. The men who were buried there were many, thousands of them. And even all the thousands of them were just a little speck compared with the inconceivable amount of people that were killed in total during that insane war.
Maybe the most shocking similarity was how young some of the fallen soldiers were.
What is very clear to me after visiting these sites is that there is no glory or victory to be found in war. There is nothing to be won. There is only loss, suffering and tragedy.
I hope one day we will disarm.