Wapenstilstandsdag

I spent the remembrance of the end of World War I with a Maltese and a German in a small Belgian town-turned-battle-ground site. It was a day to remember and I'd like to share it with you.

We spend Wapenstilstandsdag (Armistice Day) in Ieper, a village near the Flemish/Wallonia line. The city of Ieper/Ypres was key in World War I, as the German's invasion here lead the British to enter the war. The front where the Allies and the German's fought for nearly four years was just kilometers away from the city center, seeing at least five deadly battles and martyring most of the city. It was also the first place where the Germans utilized poisonous gas as a weapon. As you can imagine, this city feels very strongly about the war; every evening they have a salute to the fallen soldiers of the war, and every year they host Belgium's WWI internationally attended ceremony.

When I say internationally attended, I mean there were ambassadors and representatives from the US, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Malta, Germany, India, and the United Kingdom. Most of the soldiers who died around Ieper were part of the then British Empire, which explains most of these countries' involvement. Along with Belgian officials, they participated in a prayer and wreath laying ceremony in the large Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, a monument dedicated to the British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed and whose graves remain unknown.

Next to and around the Menin Gate was the poppy field. Poppies are a symbol of the day due to their blood-like red color and prominence in the worst battlefields in Flanders, which lead to the popular WWI poem "In Flanders Fields" (see below). The poem is often used in remembrance ceremonies around the world, and especially here in Flanders. This year they did a really cool thing with the poppies: cardboard poppies were sent to two million Brits asking for a "personal message of remembrance", and 400,000 were returned. Here are some pictures:





The day got even more special from there. Huge crowds were flooding the small city, many of them foreign, and about a third in uniform. All different uniforms, of every shape and color, kilts, berets, badges, medals, adornments, worn by those of all ages! It was a big veterans celebration, an international one joined by former adversaries and current allies. It was humbling.

The three of us went to the In Flanders Fields museum, one of the most significant museums on the Great War. It didn't glorify war; it showed how futile and awful it is. It was incredibly well done and if you're ever in Flanders I highly recommend visiting. There was one exhibit entitled "Who Won the War?" and simply contained pictures of soldiers in the trenches whose pictures were taken but never retrieved when the war was over. To see the faces of the kids (yes, kids), was horrifying and made the war feel real for a generation much removed.

In fact I was talking with my German friend about WWI. I wanted to know if she/Germans viewed that war differently from WWII, since while both had the Germans on the aggressor side, WWI didn't have the evils of the Holocaust. My friend said that honestly, she can see that point, but she really just feels closer to second war than the first. She doesn't have any connection to the first war, no emotional attachment. I agreed that the same was true for me- WWI is an intellectual exercise, while WWII is an emotional one; both of my grandfathers faught in it, my great uncle was captured and tortured, and I know Holocaust survivors. I don't know if my family had even arrived from the old country when WWI was happening. It was interesting talking about these perspectives with a German, and to look around at the older people in the city and know that to some of them, this was personal.

Additionally, I'd like to mention that the museum also commemorated those who became disabled due to the war. It made me feel really good to know that that sacrifice was not overlooked or forgotten.


That is my long and (I think) interesting day in Ieper for Wapenstilstandsdag. I'd love to hear your comments!

xoxo
kw


ps. In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

— Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 - 1918)