American Cemetery at Omaha

Row, upon row, upon row, of white crosses

What War is Good For

Theodore Roosevelt Jr

Finally there was Omaha Beach the place of the most savage fighting of D-Day and above it the huge American cemetery with over 9000 American dead. Row, upon row, upon row, of white crosses including General Theodore Rosevelt Jr. who died because he insisted on landing with his men on D-Day.

I was given a tour by the Cemetery's Director and was surprized when he showed me these graves of the Niland Brothers... They were two of the four brothers that were Steven Spielberg's Inspiration for his movie "Saving Private Ryan"

Turning south from there I came to what seemed to me the saddest and most disturbing place of all. The German Cemetery at La Camba. In the centre, on top of a large grassy mound, surrounded by red roses stand two shrouded figures.

None of the simple small ground
level plaques marking each grave with name and rank indicated that the SS or Hitler Youth ever existed. I wondered which were just conscript soldiers caught up in the whirlwind and which were fanaticalNazi's There was no way to tell which of these had deported Jews to death camps, or summarily executed civilians. Here they lay, just like all the others, the pride of Hitler's "Master Race", their blood required, to save Germany's soul. In between each section of graves were groups of five crosses of the same black volcanic stone.I placed a rose on one of these and wrote.

I leave a
blood red rose
on a black black cross
It is all I can find
in my heart
as reconciliation.