The first is dated October 2, 1944 and was passed for publication by the US Army Press Censor on October 11. It is captioned:
War Ended for these Nazis
Dead Germans left behind by their retreating comrades are buried by Nazi prisoners of war in [a] cemetery at Eloyes, France.
I was struck by a number of things: the closeness of the wooden crosses, the visible lack of guards, the fact that the burials are outside of the cemetery and, most sadly, the pile of corpses in the foreground with a cross laid on each. The photograph was taken by a US Army photographer.
The second image is dated September 2, 1944 and was passed by the Censor four days later. The caption reads:
Bodies of Gestapo Victims exhumed in France
Under the Direction of a member of the French Red Croos, German prisoners exhume bodies of victims of the Gestapo in Grenoble for identification and appropriate burial in a common grave.
I found some footage of another exhumation in Grenoble on this link:
http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675049517_coffins_placing-flowers_victims-of-Gestapo_digging-graves
Grim photos indeed. I feel the French at the time would not wand Germans buried in there cemetery after what they did in their country.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Bill that these are very sobering photos. But it's good to revisit things like this, to remember.
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