Perl-Besch Ehrenfriedhof

If you are visiting the Moselle Valley, do not miss this oportunity to visit this very interesting military cemetery, which has many aspects that you will not find in any other military cemetery, like the presence of Eastern Europeans deported civilians. Unfortunately, the tourist guides and tourist information regarding the Moselle Valley never talk about this place. Once more when it comes to Germany, it is as if they wanted to hide an important part of our common European History. This military cemetery belongs to the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (German War Grave Commission) and it has been initially built with a lot of taste, respect and dignity by the Government of Sarre. This is the biggest German military cemetery in the länder of Sarre. The cemetery is in military land that belonged to the Siegfried Line, or Westwall, during World War II. You can see three big crosses that stand over a blown bunker from the Siegfried Line at the bottom of the cemetery. You can also see other bunkers from the Siegfried Line while walking on the road to the cemetery. There are 1279 German soldiers from World War II buried here. There are 950 Eastern European civilians buried here too. These civilians were men and women deported thousands and thoisands of kilometres, to the West of Germany, during World War II by the German Government of the time. Most of the German military here were once in mass graves. Step buy step, the identification process has taken place and now many, but not all of the German soldiers share grave of two. Contrary to the Commonwealth and US military grave tradition, in the German military grave tradition, graves are not individual. Despite the fact that some soldiers are unidentified, they have still been placed in two-corps graves out of the mass grave, with the respect and dignity that soldiers who have given their lifes for their country much deserve. The deported Eastern European women and men are still in a mass grave that sits on the left of the main path of the cemetery. This part of the cemetery appears to the visitor as an empty prairy. There is only a stone that signals that this is the mass grave of the deported Eastern European civilians. There is a book at the entrance with the names and nationalities of the deported Eastern European civilians. It is not explained anywhere in the cemetary, but looking at the number of Russian women, you can figure out that the deported civilians were probably forced labour from the factories that were in the area or helped built the Siegfried Line. I was expecting that most of the German military here would have died during the Ardennes Offensive at the end of 1944. Instead most of the German military died in 1945 during the Allied invassion of Germany, defending the Siegfried Switch or Orscholz Switch. The Siegfried Switch was a defence line, between Nennig and Orscholz, that splitted from the Siegfried Line to protect the triangle formed by the Sarre river and the Moselle river. Inside the triangle are the Saargau hills, which are the hills at the East of the cemetary. This triangle is a natural defence. Therefore, it was one of the last border areas to be penetrated by the Allies during the invasion, and it was conquered at a very late stage. I am very please to see that Germany is step by step giving to German soldiers the honor, respect and dignity that they have long deserved. Next step is to do the same with the deported civilians buried in this mass grave and give them identified graves, provided that such an indentification process is still possible today. This is a place of History but more important it is a place of respect. Please, behave properly and don't leave the place without praying for the souls of these soldiers and deported civilians.

Small cemetery, but largest in the State. Home to many German and other nationalities soldiers.

Beautiful location and good to think about. I am here almost every month when I just want to get away from it all. Parking space is available.

My grandpa, whom I never met, is buried there. He fell 5 days before the end of the war.

A little out of the way. Parking space available.