American and German Military Cemeteries in Luxembourg (with subtitles) - Summer 2021 Walking Tour

The U.S. cemetery consists of 17 acres of manicured lawn surrounded by 33.5 acres of woods. The visitor center, where information and brochures are attainable, is to the left as the visitor enters the front gates. Entering through the gates, the visitor will see the impressive Memorial Chapel encompassed by a stone terrace directly in front of them. The chapel includes massive bronze doors embellished with bronze cartouches depicting military “virtues”, a sparkling mosaic ceiling and a colorful stained glass windows showcasing the Army insignia representing the men and woman that rest in the cemetery. On the lower level of the terrace, two pylons face each other across a quote by Eisenhower about the sacrifice of military service members. The pylons display the battle movements in the western European Operations (on the right) and those related to the Battle of the Bulge (on the left). On the reverse of the maps, 371 names of those missing in action are inscribed. Twenty-three bronze rosettes identify service members who have been recovered since the inscriptions were made and now rest in known graves. Sloping away from the terrace is the cemetery where 5,070 service members lie, many of whom lost their lives in the Battle of the Bulge and in the advance to the Rhine River. The design is a softly curving fan shape consisting of nine sections interspersed with four fountains, majestic trees, and expansive rose and rhododendron beds. It is a befittingly tranquil final resting place for these Americans who gave their all. The cemetery was established on December 29, 1944 by the 609th Quartermaster Company of the U.S. Third Army while Allied Forces were stemming the enemy's desperate Ardennes Offensive, one of the critical battles of World War II. The city of Luxembourg served as headquarters for General George S. Patton's U.S. Third Army. The cemetery is the final resting place of General Patton. The Sandweiler German war cemetery contains the graves of 10,913 German servicemen from the Battle of the Bulge in winter 1944 and spring 1945. Following an agreement reached in 1952 between the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the Federal Republic of Germany, 5,286 bodies were moved to Sandweiler from 150 different cemeteries throughout Luxembourg. They had mostly lain in mass graves for which only incomplete records were available and the German War Graves Commission (Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge) set about identifying as many as possible. As a result, 4,014 of the 4,829 in the communal comrades' graves are now identified and listed.