Bundeswehr students look after war graves in Ysselsteyn

Bundeswehr students look after war graves in Ysselsteyn

From August 25th to September 5th, 2025, ten student officers and officer candidates from the Helmut Schmidt University/University of the Bundeswehr Hamburg as well as a regular soldier were involved at the German war cemetery in Ysselsteyn, the Netherlands. This project took place in cooperation with the Volksbund German War Graves Commission e.V. instead of.

The war cemetery in Ysselsteyn is the largest of its kind in the world and houses around 32,000 graves. These include 87 people who died in the First World War, with the majority of those buried falling in the Second World War. Each grave is marked by its own cross, which represents a significant difference to many other German war cemeteries, which often contain mass graves.

Extensive maintenance work

The students' tasks included a variety of nursing tasks. This included clearing grave crosses of vegetation, clearing sidewalks and removing dead trees. Other activities included removing trees, clearing dangerous branches from fences, chopping up shrub and tree trimmings, repairing uneven paved surfaces and removing leaves and weeds.

This intensive and formative experience enabled the students to take responsibility beyond the reality of their studies and training. At the end of their work, they laid a wreath to remember the dead in a formal ceremony.

The Volksbund and its mission

The People's League is dedicated to the search, recovery and dignified burial of war dead abroad as well as the care of their graves. The organization actively promotes the culture of remembrance and creates educational spaces for young people at these resting places. It manages over 830 war cemeteries in 46 countries containing the remains of more than 2.8 million war victims, including prisoner of war cemeteries.

The overall goal of the Volksbund is to create a worthy memorial for the victims of war and tyranny. In order to permanently preserve the graves, many small graves, especially from the Second World War, have to be dismantled and reburied in central war cemeteries. Care is also taken to integrate these facilities into the landscape, with the boundaries of the cemeteries highlighting them as special places while still allowing unobstructed views.

In Western Europe, grave crosses or name plates are often used to identify graves, while in countries such as Poland, the Russian Federation and Belarus, other variants such as steles or name books are used due to the high number of victims. This reflects the respectful appreciation of the fallen and contributes to the memory of them.