{"id":1331,"date":"2015-05-08T15:37:23","date_gmt":"2015-05-08T15:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/social.rollins.edu\/wpsites\/letters\/?p=1331"},"modified":"2019-10-28T17:08:06","modified_gmt":"2019-10-28T17:08:06","slug":"disturbing-differences-between-burials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/2015\/05\/08\/disturbing-differences-between-burials\/","title":{"rendered":"Disturbing Differences Between Burials"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Chapter 12 of Berlin at War<\/em>, Moorhouse touches upon the differences in burials between those taking place at Berlin\u2019s Invaliden cemetery and those taking place at Weissensee. Invaliden became a burial ground for prominent members of the military, whereas Weissensee \u201cbecame a last refuge for the desperate\u201d (262).<\/p>\n

In Invaliden, angels and eagles predominated. As WWII began, some important military members would be killed during the course of the war. One such general was Werner von Fritsch. He was killed in the Polish campaign outside of Warsaw. The Nazis held an elaborate funeral, with the coffin covered with the swastika flag. The general\u2019s steel helmet and dagger were also recovered.<\/p>\n

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Military Funeral in Nazi Germany<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
<\/div>\n

A few more important military members would be buried in the same cemetery. Luftwaffe general Ernst Udet, who committed suicide, was honored due to his high scoring surviving air ace during the First World War. Even though important military members did not die often during the war, death was still always occurring. It was rare to find a family in tact during the war years. Regular citizens rarely received a formal burial, whereas important military veterans received a highly celebrated funeral. Nonetheless, death occurred in extremely high numbers during the war, whether it was directly on the warfront or it came from bombings and city life.<\/p>\n

Berlin consisted of many Jewish cemeteries before the outbreak of WWII. However, only one remained, which happened to be both the largest and most prominent: Weissensee. This cemetery was founded in the late nineteenth century and has more than 100,000 graves over 40 hectares of land. Weissensee was associated with the more \u201cGermanic\u201d Jewish people, who also did not lose any sight of their religion.<\/p>\n

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Weissensee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Both Invaliden and Weissensee had a few similarities. Both contained the best and brightest people of the times. Both stood as testament to communities at the apex of their power and influence. The Jewish cemetery soon became overgrown due to its immense size. It also became a hiding place for Jews who decided to go underground.<\/p>\n

Death was ever-present during the 1940s throughout Europe. German citizens had to deal with air attack on almost a nightly basis. They also had to deal with criminals, such as the S-Bahn murderer. The German military was also facing death as a result of fighting a two-front war for a few years. As a result, there was not always time for a proper burial to take place and those fighting for the Fuhrer would simply lie where they fell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Chapter 12 of Berlin at War, Moorhouse touches upon the differences in burials between those taking place at Berlin\u2019s Invaliden cemetery and those taking place at Weissensee. Invaliden became a burial ground for prominent members of the military, whereas Weissensee \u201cbecame a last refuge for the desperate\u201d (262). In Invaliden, angels and eagles predominated….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[367],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-field-studies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1331"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17857,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331\/revisions\/17857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}