Labry

Département Meurthe-et-Moselle 865 German war dead including 8 soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian Army First World War. The German military cemetery in Labry was established in January 1915 by their own troops. The Labry railroad junction - together with Conflans and Jarny - was the main supply point for the Verdun front at the time and also the site of several military hospitals, including an epidemic hospital. Those who died here and the victims of accidents and the sick on stage duty were buried in the cemetery. As numerous prisoners of war from various nations were deployed in this area for work in the rear area, including road construction and mining, 54 Belgians, 92 Romanians, 133 Russians and 53 French originally lay next to the German war dead. in 1972, the French military administration arranged for these dead to be transferred to national cemeteries. In the following years, German soldiers whose remains were found during work on the former battlefields of Verdun were laid to rest here. The dead of the Austro-Hungarian Army belonged to the Austro-Hungarian 35th Inf. Division, which - together with three other divisions in the summer of 1918 - had been sent to the Western Front to support the allied forces. This division had its peacetime base in Transylvania (today Romania). The crews were predominantly of Romanian nationality, mixed with Germans (Transylvanian Saxons) and Magyars. When the Allies - Americans and French - attacked the so-called Mihiel Arch on September 12, 1918, the k.u.k. 35.J.Div. lost 99 officers and 3200 men killed, wounded and captured, including many victims of poison gas. Repair work between the wars Although the care between the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. and the French military authorities was generally regulated on the basis of an agreement reached in 1928, this could not be applied to Labry due to the numerous nations involved. Maintenance therefore remained largely in French hands. After the conclusion of the Franco-German War Graves Agreement of July 19, 1966, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. - financially supported by the German government - was able to carry out the final design of the German military cemeteries of the First World War in France. Young volunteers from the Volksbund had already begun the preliminary gardening work, but completion was delayed due to the intended reburial of the dead of other nations. It was not until 1979 that the Volksbund was able to replace the previous temporary wooden grave markers with crosses made of natural stone engraved with the names and dates of those buried here. For religious reasons, the two graves of the fallen of the Jewish faith were marked with a natural stone grave stele instead of a cross, the Hebrew characters of which read: 1. (above) "Here rests buried ... ." 2. (below) "May his soul be bound into the circle of the living." This was followed by a final, fundamental landscaping overhaul of the entire site. The monument erected during the First World War was restored, the surrounding walls repaired, the entrance redesigned and the grave area landscaped. Maintenance: The cemetery is constantly maintained by the Volksbund's maintenance service.