The memorial is best viewed from the Rue du Centre side. The triangular pediment bears the inscription ‘PROPATRIA’, the face ‘TO THE MEMORY OF ALL ITS CHILDREN VICTIMS OF THE WAR 14-18 VESQUEVILLE RECOGNISANT’ and the base is carved with two knotted laurel branches. On the inside of the cemetery, the word PRAY is inscribed on the triangular base, ‘POUR LES FIDELES TREPASSES’ on the front and ‘RIP’ on the base. On the left-hand side are the names of the soldiers who fought in the First World War. On the right-hand side, in the pediment, are the letters ‘HONOUR’ and on the base the names of deportees from both wars.

Some of the inscriptions have gradually faded over time, but the name of Laroche François Jules can still be seen on the right-hand side. He was shot dead on 9 August 1944 by the Gestapo at the age of 22.

The Gestapo, an abbreviation of the German ‘Geheime Staatspolizei’, was the political police force of the Third Reich. Its primary objective was to protect the government from coups d'état or sabotage. One of the ways they did this was through surveillance and intelligence gathering. The Gestapo was infamous and feared for its brutality. Its henchmen violently repressed resistance movements within Germany itself and in the European countries it occupied.

After the war, the Gestapo police force was condemned as a criminal organisation by the Nuremberg Trials.