Historian Tim Grady reveals that many British citizens have tended the graves of over 7,000 German soldiers and prisoners of war buried in local cemeteries. This practice, described as an act of reconciliation and shared grief, has persisted since the World Wars. Grady's research, ignited by newly discovered German embassy archives, underscores how tending to graves was seen as a means to cope with the war's aftermath. British families often connected with German families through the shared experience of loss, demonstrating profound human compassion transcending national boundaries.
If you can do something for the war dead who are close to you, perhaps other people will do the same for your loved ones, wherever they are buried.
They felt that tending to the war graves in their local area was a tangible way of overcoming the horrors of war.
Grady discovered that one British couple who lost their son in the first world war tended the grave of a German fighter whose plane came down near their home.
This extraordinary relationship highlights the human capacity for reconciliation and shared grief across national boundaries post-war.
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