'Immortality is not a gift, immortality is an achievement; and only those who strive mightily shall possess it.'
-Edgar Lee Masters, from the poem The Village Atheist
[Above: A Hitler Youth funeral ceremony.]
[Above: Frederik Meinecke, martyred July 5, 1943.]
[Above: Coffin builders take a break.]
[Above: Alfred Lorenz, martyred November 13, 1941.]
[Above: Benedikt Huber, martyred July 4, 1944.]
[Above: Note the German Cross in stones on the ground.]
[Above: Joseph Löken, martyred July 26, 1941.]
[Above: The grave of martyred pilot Hermann Rein.]
[Above: Joh. Kiermeier, martyred 1944 .]
[Above: Somewhere in Poland, September 1939. Courtesy of the Bundesarchiv.]
[Above: Somewhere in Poland, September 1939. Courtesy of the Bundesarchiv.]
[Above: Cemetery of Waffen-SS Wiking, Lugansk area, Uspenka Village, 1942.]
[Above: Friedhof, 1944.]
[Above: Friedhof, 1944.]
[Above: Joachim Peiper oversees the burial of SS-Obersturmführer Lucas Westrup, attended by officers of the Waffen-SS Leibstandarte, February 26, 1943.]
[Above: A Stalingrad cemetery.]
[Above: German POWs captured by the 51st Highland Division bury their fallen comrades, November 1, 1944.
Martyrs Werner Sonntag, Emil Zimerman, and Günter Jürgs have given all.]
[Above: Coffin of Frederick the Great draped with the flag of freedom in the Berterode Mine. It was moved there by the Germans to protect it from Allied bombs.]
[Above: December/January 1941-42.]
[Above: Martyrs Herbert Gottschalk, Hans Lang and brothers unknown.]
[Above: An SS machinegunners grave somewhere in Russia.]
[Above: Romeries, France.]
[Above: Crete.]
[Above: Graves of the 132nd Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht in Feodosia.]
[Above: Gefreiter Siegfried Lämmel, martyred 1941.]
[Above: SS Kriegsberichter Fritz Mielert, martyred August 10, 1941.]
[Above: Hermann Göring speaking at the funeral of Ace hero Helmut Lent (June 13, 1918 – October 7, 1944). Lent was a German night-fighter who shot down 110 Allied aircraft, 102 of them at night! He died in a flying accident, having never been beaten in battle.]
[Above: Hero Helmut Lent, check out that Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds... On the left is Helmut and his wife and daughter.]
Awards
[Above: Somewhere on the Eastern Front...]
[Above: The funeral of SS officers killed in an Allied air raid on Auschwitz, December 26, 1944. Karl Höcker is seen here saluting while the wives and children of those killed sit behind him.]
[Above: The funeral of Luftwaffe Major Karl Hammes, June 9, 1939. Hammes flew a Messerschmitt fighter (Bf.110C-1) and was the commander of the 1st Squadron of heavy fighters (1.ZG1). He made an emergency landing after an air battle with a Polish fighter. Wounded, he and his crew were captured and he later died in a Polish hospital. After Poland's surrender he was buried near the remains of his plane.]
[Above: A graveyard in the center of Voronezh (Voronezh is a city in Russia, straddling the Voronezh River and located 12 kilometers from where it flows into the Don.)... it was uprooted by the Soviets and now there's a public park in its place today.]
[Above: A Luftwaffe propeller grave marker amongst Wehrmacht graves.]
[Above: Little BDM girls laying flowers on the graves of martyrs.]
[Above: The gates to a field cemetery.]
[Above: A monument before Alexander Palace.]
[Above: Rudolf Müller, martyred November 20, 1941.]
[Above: Wehrmacht funeral, somewhere on the Eastern Front.]
[Above: Willi Krause, martyred September 12, 1941.]
[Above: A French Waffen-SS grave marker of four men who gave all for Europe:
Paul Briffault.
Robert Stoffart.
Raymond Payras.
Sergey Krottoff.]
[Above: The graves of French Waffen-SS soldiers.]
[Above: Obergruppenführer Theodor Eicke (October 17, 1892 – February 26, 1943), martyred on the Eastern Front near Kharkov. So loved by his men, and greatly outnumbered, they fought to retrieve his body from the battlefield, no doubt numerous of them dying in the process. Such was the valiant and honorable spirit of the Waffen-SS.]
[Above: Rolf Jaeger leads the unveiling of a monument to a martyr of Legion Condor -- Walter Eckert. It says (in German) 'Here died in the struggle to free Spain - Walter Eckert.' At the bottom it says (in Spanish) 'January 28, 1939 - Died for God and for Spain'. This took place in Mollet, August 1941.]
[Above: A cemetery of the Free Corps Denmark.]
[Above: German soldiers stand as honor guards before the grave of the Red Baron.]
[Above: Herbert Brieger, martyred August 5, 1941.]
[Above: Hans Geffken, martyred August 31, 1942.]
[Above: Two comrades in life and death, Kurt Sadowski and Fritz Henrich.]
[Above: A grave with a view...]
[Above: Paratrooper monument]
[Above: Paratrooper monument before cemetery]
[Above: Shortly before Memorial Day, the Chief of the Army, General von Brauchitsch, at the graves of heroes, 1940]
[Above: These are privately printed postcards. 'Schütze' (rifleman) Otto Thamm, martyred June 22, 1941. Also note that the last grave in the picture above is the grave of Thamm. Click to enlarge.]
[Above: Adolf Hitler on Memorial Day (photo by Heinrich Hoffmann)]
[Above: The grave of a Knight's Cross winner (with his photo).]
[Above: An SS cemetery.]
[Above: A hero's grave in Tunisia, 1943. Erhard Lege, martyred March 22, 1943, born January 8, 1913. He was 30 years old when he died. Look at that helmet... grisly.]
[Above: Heroes' graves in Italy, 1944. Heinrich Riedel, martyred January 19, 1944, born in 1922. He was 22 years old when he died.]
[Above: Afrika Korps burial ceremony. Check out the Knight's Cross on the top of the pillow.]
[Above: 'Our Honor is True'.]
Deutschland muss leben.-und wenn wir sterben müssen!
(Germany must live - even if we have to die!)
'Thus, immortality is conditional. It isn’t for everyone. It must be gained through merciless combat at every hour of every day of your life.'
-Miguel Serrano - NOS, Book of the Resurrection