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Lommel’s German War Cemetery is the final resting place of soldiers who served under Nazi Germany and died on Belgian soil during the Second World War. These soldiers came from fifteen different nationalities
The Lommel German War Cemetery is the largest German cemetery in Western Europe outside Germany. Established by the Belgian government in 1946, it contains the graves of soldiers who served in the Wehrmacht during the Second World War and died in Belgium. It is cared for and maintained by the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge.
Today, 39,111 soldiers are buried in Lommel, 6,221 of whom remain unidentified.
The cemetery presents the graves both as a collective resting place and as a compilation of 39,111 individual stories. These personal histories reflect the diverse demographics of the Wehrmacht: soldiers from up to fifteen different nationalities rest here.
Among them are men from the Baltic countries, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and former Soviet-influenced states such as Ukraine, Romania, and Bulgaria, many of whom joined the German forces in opposition to Stalinist rule. There are also soldiers of German descent from China and the United States.
Religious diversity is also evident in the cemetery. While many soldiers were Catholic, some were Muslim, especially those from Central Asia, and a few were Jewish.
Those buried here took part in major battles such as Hürtgen Forest and Aachen. Some casualties from the Battle of the Bulge are also interred at Lommel.