After fleeing Paris, we spent some time in Verdun. This peaceful little town was the site of one of the most horrific battles – if you can call lobbing millions of pounds of shells at each other over a period of two years a battle – of WWI.
The museum and memorials were excellent. The boys thought all the military gear, artillery, and weapons were ‘sweet’, as we thought they would. Seeing remnant trenches, ruins of obliterated villages, and thousands of shell craters (now covered with delicate flowers) was interesting for
them. Yet such scars on the Earth don’t cause much introspection when you’re nine or thirteen. However, the reality and magnitude of what went on at Verdun nearly 100 years ago hit the boys hard when we visited the military cemeteries.
When we stood among the sea of 14,000 white marble crosses and stars of David at an American cemetery at Romagne Sous Montfaucon (one of the smaller cemeteries), we asked the boys to imagine a different nineteen year old man standing by each marker, and then consider that each of them lost his life violently within a few months in 1918. Sam and Theo grew quiet, and we watched as they began to read names and home towns. Soon the questions began about who these men were and what could have started such a horrible event. Their reverence for these places suddenly deepened. It was a poignant history lesson for two American kids.
The museum and memorials were excellent. The boys thought all the military gear, artillery, and weapons were ‘sweet’, as we thought they would. Seeing remnant trenches, ruins of obliterated villages, and thousands of shell craters (now covered with delicate flowers) was interesting for
them. Yet such scars on the Earth don’t cause much introspection when you’re nine or thirteen. However, the reality and magnitude of what went on at Verdun nearly 100 years ago hit the boys hard when we visited the military cemeteries.When we stood among the sea of 14,000 white marble crosses and stars of David at an American cemetery at Romagne Sous Montfaucon (one of the smaller cemeteries), we asked the boys to imagine a different nineteen year old man standing by each marker, and then consider that each of them lost his life violently within a few months in 1918. Sam and Theo grew quiet, and we watched as they began to read names and home towns. Soon the questions began about who these men were and what could have started such a horrible event. Their reverence for these places suddenly deepened. It was a poignant history lesson for two American kids.
makes me shed a tear.
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