Re: Thüringen
Posted by:
Roger (IP Logged)
Date: September 05, 2005 03:05PM
Hello Oliver,
I guess you mean KITCHENER, ONTARIO.
After I looked further, I found the following on David Carters Website which should explain the situation.
I have also sent you e-mail.
regards
Roger
KITCHENER, ONTARIO (FORMERLY KNOWN AS BERLIN)
On a rainy May day with the dark bloated clouds hanging low, I visited Woodland Cemetery. Tucked away in the south east corner lie one hundred and eighty seven German prisoners of war. They are buried two to a grave. Some died in the First World War, the majority in the Second. They died at thirty six different camps across Canada but mainly in Ontario or Alberta. At time of death they were buried locally, but then in 1970, a decision was made to consolidate the graves in one location to guarantee the graves, proper care. How did they die? Why didn't the remains, once disinterred, get shipped home to Germany?
In a corner of this quiet yet mildly disturbing graveyard is a very disturbing piece of 'official' vandalism.
There are two carved wooden grave markers taken from Gravenhurst cemetery and placed in a fieldstone alcove. One grave marker memorialized Major Wilhelm Bach who died of cancer. The other, lists soldier Erich Ertz who had won the Iron Cross. The one marker had a German swastika carved on its face; the other had the cross as a symbol of bravery. Both symbols were there until April 1978 when a self appointed hypocrite from the Canadian Legion in London, Ontario decided in the wake of a television show entitled 'Holocaust', that he would travel to Kitchener and demand the cemetery caretaker remove the offensive swastika and iron cross from the two wooden markers.
In 1980, the fresh scars of the obliteration were visible reminders that while World War Two officially ended in 1945, some hostilities and animosities may never be laid to rest.