A large Celtic cross stands on the edge of old quarry near the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation in County Wicklow, Ireland. The cross itself comes as no surprise, such crosses are found across Ireland. What makes this cross worth a comment is what lies below.
Below the cross, at the foot of the rock wall, is the German Military Cemetery. Here lie the remains of fifty-three German air and naval service men killed during the Second World War. Some fell into Ireland from the sky when their planes went down. The sea deposited others on the Irish coast.
Forty-six German civilians rest with them – detainees being shipped from England to Canada upon a ship torpedoed by a German U-boat. Six soldiers from the First World War are also buried there. They died while prisoners in a British prisoner of war camp in Ireland. One person has an individual memorial – Hermann Gortz, who served as a spy in Ireland and committed suicide after the war to avoid deportation that he feared would put him in Soviet hands.
Smaller crosses and gravestones fill the cemetery itself. A “Hall of Honour” provides a place for reflection and prayer.
The cemetery’s stark simplicity combines with its beauty to provide much to ponder about the human cost of war and the common humanity of the men and women who serve in the military of every nation. As John McCutcheon puts it in his song, “Christmas in the Trenches“:
the ones who call the shots won’t be among the dead and lame
And on each end of the rifle we’re the same.
See you along the Trail.
