Saint-Désir-de-Lisieux German war cemetery


Saint-Désir-de-Lisieux is a Second World War German military war grave cemetery, located close to the village of Saint-Désir and west of Lisieux in the Calvados department, Normandy, France. It is located adjacent to the British Saint-Désir War Cemetery and is unique as the two burial grounds are linked by a pathway. It is the smallest German war cemetery in Normandy and contains the remains of 3,735 German military personnel. The cemetery was created by the British Graves Registration Commission in August 1944 with British and German casualties buried in adjacent fields.
Saint-Désir-de-Lisieux is usually chosen as the cemetery for newly discovered German war dead from across Normandy. The cemetery is maintained and managed by the voluntary German War Graves Commission.

History

The majority of the German war dead buried at Saint-Désir-de-Lisieux were killed during the last days of the Battle of Normandy and inside the Falaise Pocket in August 1944. A high number come from the 7th, 15th, 7th Panzer Armies as the Allies pushed the Germans out of Normandy, across the Seine and towards Paris. The British Graves Service created the cemetery for both fallen Commonwealth and German service personnel. German soldiers that had been buried in field graves and small local cemeteries were disinterred and brought to Saint-Désir-de-Lisieux.

Formation

In the late 1950s the German War Graves Commission remodelled and expanded the cemetery. Headstones were replaced with red sandstone plaques giving the names, ranks, dates of birth and death of two fallen German soldiers.
Saint-Désir-de-Lisieux was officially inaugurated as a German War Cemetery on 21 September 1961.

Personal fates

Buried at the cemetery:
Unlike the American and Commonwealth War Graves Commissions, the German Commission is entirely voluntary and relies on gifts and collections to further its work. During the summer months one may see international school children tending the graves. They volunteer to work with the Volksbund during their school holidays and visit American and German war cemeteries, memorials, sites of the invasion and take part in the memorial ceremony with veterans and the mayor of La Cambe.