Municipal Cemetery Aalst

The cemetery of Aalst contains a plot of honour with numerous Belgian war graves of the First and the Second World War. In this plot there are also six Commonwealth war graves of the Second World War and three French war graves.
There are commemorative columns in front of the plot of honour and several memorials of the Second World War: for the deported and the victims of the concentration camps.
The cemetery contains also two plots with the graves of civilian war victims of both world wars.
The graves of veterans, former resistance fighters, former prisoners of war and political prisoners of the First and the Second World War are scattered throughout the cemetery.

During the First World War, German soldiers were also buried in Aalst, according to archives about 290.
In the course of September 1916, the German occupier had a memorial placed in the cemetery in honor of the German soldiers buried there.
The city council was ordered to be fully present at the inauguration on December 16, 1916.

On the front of the monument were the words:
"† Wer mutig für sein Vaterland fallen,
der baut sich selbst ein ewig Monument
in treuen Herzen seiner landes Bruder
und dies Gebaude sturzt kein Sturmwind nieder „

"Who valiantly fallen for his homeland
builds an eternal monument for himself
in the faithful hearts of his countrymen
and this building does not drop a storm "

In the 1950s, the 290 German war dead were taken to the Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof in Vladslo.

Source: World War I Forum and Aalst Tourism Office

Do you have more information about this location? Inform us!

Source

• Text: Luc Van Waeyenberge & Marie-Christine Vinck
• Photos: Luc van Waeyenberge (1, 3, 4, 5), Marie-Christine Vinck (2)