The journey was suggested by our friend Martin, who is interested in German war history, among other stuff, and we eagerly agreed to join. The goal of it was to visit two battlefields of the First World War, now presented as memorials. We will try to transmit the atmosphere of them, but it is not really possible, so we encourage everyone to visit them themselves.
So, the trip began with a train to Saarbrücken, where Martin and Nadja picked us with their car and we went to Verdun.
So, firstly we checked in in our hostel and then headed to the first place. Its website contains a lot of interesting facts about the whole war and the battle of Verdun in particular. We were lucky, that Martin prepared himself a very detailed history accompanying with some photos from the wartime and citations from letters of soldiers. We advise to read through this website or elsewhere to become aware of this horrendous event of the world history.
The first, what we saw, was this monumental memorial to all victims of the battle.
The building is based literally on bones of soldiers - its cellar is divided into chambers, that are filled with the human remains, that were found on the battlefield. They can be seen through the cellar windows, we saw them but didn't take photos.
The second was a field of white crosses of identified French soldiers, fallen here.
Then we went through the forest to the next stop. The whole forest is riddled with trenches, that are still visible and careful preserved by museum's keepers.
And the next stop is an underground bunker, that was a base for the French army and was fired by German artillery.
The landscape, these tiny hills and uneven terrain, was formed exactly by the artillery attack.
Here the rest of a railroad can be seen, it was used for suppliance transport.
Everywhere in the forest there are bunkers, shelters, bomb pieces, barbed wire... Somewhere there are still undetonated mines, bombs and.. human remains, still. That's why it is allowed to walk only by designated paths and isn't allowed to make a picnic stops, as a matter of honour to victims of the war.
Another very impressive fact - any tree here is not older than 100 years. Because during the artillery battles, that time existed forest was completely destroyed.
Not only trees, unfortunate. There were 9 villages, that were ruined. In some cases, there were even no ruins left. The church is a memorial to one of them.
The tables designated places, where different buildings of the village stayed.
It is impossible to imagine, how this peaceful and beautiful place was a horror then.
One German poem, simple but demanding to think about.
"Was nützt der Tod der Menschen, die hin gemordet sind?
Wenn er nicht hat daraus gelernt, er ist weiter taub und blind.
Die Freiheit und die Würde, sind nicht allgemeines Recht.
Überall auf Erden ergeht es Unterdrückten schlecht.
Das Unrecht schreit zum Himmel, wird dort nicht erhört.
Das ist es, was mich traurig macht, was mich so empört."
Hans Riedl, 2016
Another memorial.
It is the end of the first day. Then we had a dinner at a restaurant in the middle of old evening town. Nice.
The second day. We checked out from the hotel and walked a little in Verdun.
The rain didn't disturb our plans, only improved the authenticity.
You see the holes from bullets on the walls?
Idyllic landscape...
As we understood with our bad French, just "The hare, who smokes"
And other nice urban details
An old cathedral... Look at the walls again, see?
Some administration building.
Then we drove to the next battlefield. The peculiarity of this place and this battle is that the most confrontations were artillery. Before there was a village on the top of the hill. Both sides, French and German, were digging into a hill, from opposite sides, trying to detonate the other's quarters. The remains of the battle are still visible and horrifying. On the map, you can see village buildings (grey, completely destroyed during the battles) and the biggest explosion funnels (yellow, visible til nowadays).
Memorial there
An info post about bomb throwing
Reconstruction of view from a trench (they were deeper in real life)
Even deeper (an entrance in underground barracks)
Way outside, where the death was.
The death was supplied by rail
It is the end of our trip, it was very impressive, educational and completely terrifying experience. We believe everyone should not just learn history by books but visit such places to live them through.
So, the trip began with a train to Saarbrücken, where Martin and Nadja picked us with their car and we went to Verdun.
So, firstly we checked in in our hostel and then headed to the first place. Its website contains a lot of interesting facts about the whole war and the battle of Verdun in particular. We were lucky, that Martin prepared himself a very detailed history accompanying with some photos from the wartime and citations from letters of soldiers. We advise to read through this website or elsewhere to become aware of this horrendous event of the world history.
The first, what we saw, was this monumental memorial to all victims of the battle.
The building is based literally on bones of soldiers - its cellar is divided into chambers, that are filled with the human remains, that were found on the battlefield. They can be seen through the cellar windows, we saw them but didn't take photos.
The second was a field of white crosses of identified French soldiers, fallen here.
Then we went through the forest to the next stop. The whole forest is riddled with trenches, that are still visible and careful preserved by museum's keepers.
And the next stop is an underground bunker, that was a base for the French army and was fired by German artillery.
The landscape, these tiny hills and uneven terrain, was formed exactly by the artillery attack.
Here the rest of a railroad can be seen, it was used for suppliance transport.
Everywhere in the forest there are bunkers, shelters, bomb pieces, barbed wire... Somewhere there are still undetonated mines, bombs and.. human remains, still. That's why it is allowed to walk only by designated paths and isn't allowed to make a picnic stops, as a matter of honour to victims of the war.
Another very impressive fact - any tree here is not older than 100 years. Because during the artillery battles, that time existed forest was completely destroyed.
Not only trees, unfortunate. There were 9 villages, that were ruined. In some cases, there were even no ruins left. The church is a memorial to one of them.
The tables designated places, where different buildings of the village stayed.
It is impossible to imagine, how this peaceful and beautiful place was a horror then.
One German poem, simple but demanding to think about.
"Was nützt der Tod der Menschen, die hin gemordet sind?
Wenn er nicht hat daraus gelernt, er ist weiter taub und blind.
Die Freiheit und die Würde, sind nicht allgemeines Recht.
Überall auf Erden ergeht es Unterdrückten schlecht.
Das Unrecht schreit zum Himmel, wird dort nicht erhört.
Das ist es, was mich traurig macht, was mich so empört."
Hans Riedl, 2016
Another memorial.
It is the end of the first day. Then we had a dinner at a restaurant in the middle of old evening town. Nice.
The second day. We checked out from the hotel and walked a little in Verdun.
The rain didn't disturb our plans, only improved the authenticity.
You see the holes from bullets on the walls?
Idyllic landscape...
As we understood with our bad French, just "The hare, who smokes"
And other nice urban details
An old cathedral... Look at the walls again, see?
Some administration building.
Then we drove to the next battlefield. The peculiarity of this place and this battle is that the most confrontations were artillery. Before there was a village on the top of the hill. Both sides, French and German, were digging into a hill, from opposite sides, trying to detonate the other's quarters. The remains of the battle are still visible and horrifying. On the map, you can see village buildings (grey, completely destroyed during the battles) and the biggest explosion funnels (yellow, visible til nowadays).
Memorial there
An info post about bomb throwing
Reconstruction of view from a trench (they were deeper in real life)
Even deeper (an entrance in underground barracks)
Way outside, where the death was.
The death was supplied by rail
It is the end of our trip, it was very impressive, educational and completely terrifying experience. We believe everyone should not just learn history by books but visit such places to live them through.
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