The Maleme war cemetery on Crete clearly shows how the culture of remembrance and commemoration in Germany has changed in recent decades.
Cemetery description
The Maleme war cemetery is located 20 kilometers from the Greek port city of Chania on the north coast of Crete. The small village of Maleme is only one kilometer away. The site is a place of mourning and remembrance. The Volksbund's new permanent exhibition makes an important contribution to this. The exhibition attaches great importance to presenting the perspectives of the various warring parties and not closing its eyes to the crimes committed against the civilian population. Cretan men and women who survived the war tell of their experiences just as impressively as German soldiers and members of the Commonwealth army. Biographical notes, letters and photos from estates supplement the testimonies of contemporary witnesses. They document individual fates in exemplary fashion.
The cemetery is laid out in such a way that the cemeteries with the fallen soldiers make the four main combat areas of the Second World War on the Mediterranean island visible. These are Chania, Maleme, Rethymnon and Iraklion. The names of 360 soldiers who fell on the island but could not be recovered are immortalized on metal plaques in the memorial square.
Burial
The cemetery is home to 4,468 fallen soldiers from the Second World War. They were buried in 62 locations on the Mediterranean island. From April to November 1960, with the permission of the Greek government, the reburial service of the Volksbund recovered German dead from isolated field graves and provisional graves on Crete.
History
At the end of May 1941, German paratroopers and mountain troops captured Crete. The island remained under German occupation until the end of the war four years later. For many years after the end of the Second World War, high-ranking German military personnel who had fought on Crete denied the atrocities committed against the civilian population by members of the Wehrmacht. Until the ratification of a war graves agreement, coffins with German dead were stored in Gonai Monastery. in 1971, the reburial at the Maleme cemetery finally began. The cemetery was consecrated on October 6, 1974. Numerous former comrades of the fallen participated in the expansion work.
Special feature
The 1st Airborne Division of the German Armed Forces took over the sponsorship of the Maleme cemetery in 1975.
