PBS is running "Hallowed Grounds," their remarkable documentary about American overseas cemeteries in my market this evening and it might be running in your area as well. Here's the trailer for the program:
Watch the full episode. See more Hallowed Grounds.
The hour-long program is both beautiful and touching. Check your local schedule for times.
Thanks for the heads up, Buck. I'll see if it's showing in our area tonight.
ReplyDeleteSame here--caught it the first time around and was VERY moving. Would that more of our national cemeteries were as distinctively beautifully laid out with the quality of the memorial statuary/monuments, etc., as most of the European ones are..
ReplyDeleteOf course, to be fair, most in Europe are larger (because that's where most of the bodies are)and dedicated exclusively to veterans. Grave-sites in the US are divided between those exclusively for veterans--Arlington, the Punchbowl, etc., and dual-use cemeteries. In Louisville, for example. there is Cave Hill, which has a section of Civil War only, and then Zachary Taylor which is exclusively veterans from all eras.
I saw the show, and let me say I am kind of weird, in that I have actually toured the web pages of both American and British cemeteries.
ReplyDeleteNot only that, I have tried to track them down on google street view! Which was fun and educational. The german cemeteries are also interesting, as they are not done in marble, but in a black stone. They are simple crosses and the forests are allowed to grow into some cemeteries. Very moving as well. After all, none of the troops fighting got to vote for the war.
I have some bad news though, the towns around some of these cemeteries are almost ghost towns. The tourists don't come to the old WW#1 graves, although they look beautiful.
Once you leave the shadow of the American flag and make your way into town you start to feel sad, that the towns are basically farm towns, and not doing too well.
If I won the lottery, I would be over there to help at least the main street stay open.
Here's a link of a monument for kids, but the building is no longer open. It is in the town of Romagne which is outside the huge cemetery of Meuse-Argonne.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=49.332247,5.082226&spn=0,0.00284&z=19&layer=c&cbll=49.332305,5.082222&panoid=zK-1KfSr5Xwl849xXP2pPg&cbp=12,293.47,,0,5.27
A note about the British cemeteries, is that the men shot for cowardice or murder are in a section that is separate from the battle dead.