Pilgrimage of Remembrance

World War I Cemetery Visits

Take the photo tour!

Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Suresnes American Cemetery

"Merci pour la liberte"

"Grazie per la libertia"

"Merci"

In any language, these words mean "thank you." The above comments are from the guestbook at the Suresnes American World War I cemetery just outside Paris. Suresnes contains 1,565 graves and 974 names on its Wall of the Missing. The cemetery is located in the hillside suburb of Suresnes, a leafy oasis as much San Francisco as Paris. It is just a few miles west of Paris, yet it receives relatively few American tourists as visitors. And that's too bad.

Reaching Suresnes (pronounced Sir-Enz') is easy for any Paris visitor. Just take the Metro line 1 to its end at the La Defense stop. Then it's an easy ride on the RER commuter rail line or the Metro Bus number 144. The cemetery is no more than a 10-minute walk up a hill from either the train or the bus stop.

My wife Wendy and I took the opportunity to visit three of America's World War I cemeteries during our two week vacation to France in May and June, 2005. This was a wonderful chance to see the cemeteries the Gold Star mothers visited during the pilgrimages. Our trip coincided with the 75th anniversary of the first group of pilgrims, which visited France in May, 1930.

America's overseas military cemeteries are maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission. For more information on Suresnes and our other cemeteries overseas, visit their website at www.abmc.gov. The ABMC does a marvelous job of maintaining these cemeteries. On this afternoon, there were three groundskeepers tending the flowers, trees, and other decorative plantings.

Most Americans who visit an American cemetery in France visit Normandy Beach. That's a pilgrimage every American who gets the chance should make. However, the heroes buried in Suresnes deserve our time and attention, too. After all, our World War I soldiers were the fathers of what we now acknowledge was our Greatest Generation.

The trip to Suresnes is worth the effort. The neighborhood is lovely, a French collection of gardens and small homes. Furthermore, the cemetery offers a terrific view of the Eiffel Tour from its grounds. The grave markers, marble crosses and Stars of David, are spread out in a wide arc on the hillside of Mt. Valerien. The memorial chapel at the top of the hill provides a quiet place of rest and a focal point for any official programs. The Wall of the Missing contains the 974 names of American soldiers who died in World War I but whose remains were never located. Suresnes is unique among our World War I cemeteries in that it also contains graves of our World War II war dead.

The guestbook is located right inside the chapel's main entrance. Reading the remarks of previous visitors was an unexpectedly moving experience. We learned the cemetery is not heavily visited; the superintendent later said the two of us would be half the normal visitor load for one day. According to the guestbook's entries at least, the majority of visitors are European, not American. Most of these are French, and every American who visits Paris should the opportunity to read their brief guestbook entries. Dozens of them simply say "Merci."

However, many added longer messages. "Merci pour la liberte" - thank you for freedom - made more than one appearance. With a mixture of pride and patriotism, I took a few minutes to read the dozens of entries from 2005. It became clear that whatever differences the United States and France have had recently, they don't diminish the respect and gratitude many French people feel toward Americans and our soldier dead.

We also had the opportunity to speak with the Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent of Suresnes, Dave Bedford and Gabrielle Mihaescu, respectively. Gabrielle is French and took the time to chat with us for perhaps 30 minutes about the cemetery and its visitors. From talking to them, it was clear the cemeteries are alive. They are not forgotten. They continue to serve a valuable function for families, visitors, and those who need to be reminded of America's World War I contribution.

However, the graves at Suresnes were the main objective. I visited the grave of Private Samuel Evans, from Nebraska. Private Evans' mother Amy was the first Gold Star Mother to visit her son's grave during a pilgrimage. Mrs. Evans pilgrimage with Party A in 1930 took place in May, 1930. My book on the pilgrimages draws on contemporary newspaper accounts to give a more complete view of Private Evans' military service and Mrs. Evans' graveside visit. I devote a full chapter to the first group of women to land in France, Party A, in 1930.

Suresnes also contains the graves of many civilians. Chief among them are Red Cross nurses who cared for the soldiers of the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I. The nurses served with the Red Cross, not the uniformed armed forces. That didn't make the job any safer; over 100 American nurses lost their lives during the war, and several are buried in Suresnes. Despite the beautiful landscaping and terrific view, Suresnes' graves remain the focal point for all visitors.

Saturday, May 28, 2005
Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery

The Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery was our second stop. Meuse-Argonne is the largest American cemetery outside the United States; it contains 50% more graves than the heavily visited Normandy Beach cemetery. Its 130 acres hold the graves of 14,246 American war dead, most of whom died in the massive Meuse-Argonne offensive in eastern France. The cemetery also contains the names of 954 American servicemen whose bodies were never located. The cemetery is located approximately 150 miles east of Paris, near the village of Romagne-sous-Montfaucon.

May 28th was an unseasonably hot day, with temperatures in the high 80s. We stopped in the visitors' center and had the chance to meet Jeffery Aarno, the Assistant Superintendent. I was grateful to learn that Dave Bedford from Suresnes had let the folks at Meuse-Argonne know we may be visiting. We had a nice chat with Mr. Aarno, who was very busy preparing for Meuse-Argonne's Memorial Day event the next day.

It was clear that even for the Superintendents of our overseas cemeteries, the Gold Star pilgrimages are somewhat of a mystery. Both Dave Bedford & Jeffrey Aarno were especially interested in what I knew about the lodging of the pilgrims at the cemeteries themselves. During the pilgrimages of the 1930s, the mothers stayed in hotels near the cemeteries. There were too many mothers, especially visiting larger cemeteries such as Meuse-Argonne, to accommodate them on the grounds. However, reception buildings or "hostess houses" were erected at the larger cemeteries. These contained American-style bathroom facilities and even a small number of beds. I had learned that these hostess houses lodged Gold Star mothers, and other visiting family members, when they traveled to France on their own, not as part of an organized pilgrimage. Mr. Aarno was kind enough to print out a copy of a photo of Meuse-Argonne's hostess house.

The grave of Fred Ziegler was my objective at the Meuse-Argonne cemetery. Private Fred Ziegler was killed by shrapnel fire on October 11, 1918 near Sivry-sur-Meuse. His mother Louise, accompanied by his sister Grace, made the pilgrimage to Private Ziegler's grave in 1932. Grace Ziegler's nephew Ed Bliss from Durand, Illinois, was exceptionally generous in sharing his aunt's scrapbook and diary with me during my research. The Ziegler family saga is perhaps the most well-documented Gold Star mother pilgrimage story. In fact, I devoted a chapter of my book to Private Ziegler's death in battle and his mother's pilgrimage some 14 years later. So I was eager to visit Fred Ziegler's grave and pay my respects.

When I stood at Fred Ziegler's grave, I could tell how the cemetery would have changed since the pilgrims' time in the early 1930s. The trees have matured to such heights, that one cannot see all the graves at one time. During the pilgrimages, the trees and other plantings were still immature. One can scarcely imagine the impact of seeing all 14,000 grave markers would have made on the mothers during their visits.

After we visited Private Ziegler's grave, we sought out the final resting place of Medal of Honor winner Lt. Erwin Bleckley. The ABMC uses bright gold lettering on the markers of Medal of Honor winners such as Lt. Bleckley. Bleckley was the observer in a two-seater aircraft that flew numerous sorties to locate and re-supply the so-called "Lost Battalion." The Lost Battalion was approximately 600 American soldiers from the 77th Division who were cut off by the Germans during their advance. The men fought valiantly for several days to the point of exhausting themselves and their ammunition. Second Lt. Bleckley and his aircraft's pilot Second Lt. Harold E. Goettler flew mission after mission to locate the Lost Battalion. German gunners were too much for their plan, and their plane was shot down. Both men died and were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for their efforts to save the Lost Battalion.

Lt. Bleckley's mother made the pilgrimage to her son's grave in the Meuse-Argonne in 1931. However, her trip was not without some controversy. The original, 1929 law for Gold Star pilgrimages did not permit women who had already visited the graves of their sons overseas to take part in a pilgrimage. Mrs. Bleckley never denied she had visited the cemetery shortly after the war. However, the Army had no choice but to deny even the mother of a decorated war hero a chance to participate in the organized pilgrimages. Mr. and Mrs. Bleckley enlisted the aid of their Kansas congressman, who pointed out, correctly, that her visit to the makeshift, postwar cemetery would not compare to her participation in an official pilgrimage. Congress listened to these complaints, and it amended the pilgrimage bill to allow all mothers who had already been overseas at private expense to take part in a pilgrimage. [The Congressional debate over the pilgrimages is a fascinating story in its own right; I devote a full chapter to it in my book.]

The diversity of the names of the dead soldiers was very striking. Today, we think of the World War I generation as homogenous, a lily-white world in our distant past. However, diversity is more than skin deep. The AEF was an army of immigrants; many first generation Americans. Buried near Lt. Bleckley's grave, I found markers for men with names such as Hillel Botvinik from New York, Giovanni Carcora from Pennsylvania, and Ohio's Radovan Sinduk.

A number of the Gold Star mothers were born in Europe, and, even in the early 1930s, many had trouble speaking English. In fact, many of the mothers were German-born, and a few even took the opportunity to leave their pilgrimage trip for a brief detour to their native Germany.

After we left Erwin Bleckley's grave, we departed Meuse-Argonne cemetery. On the way out of the village, we stopped at a small German military cemetery. One cannot imagine a more eerie feeling. The cemetery is incredibly dark. Huge trees shade the small black crosses. Vines and groundcover blanket the entire cemetery. We saw no other visitors, except for a huge nest of cranes in the tallest of the trees. There is nothing of the open spaces and bright white markers featured in Meuse-Argonne just a few hundred yards away.

Two thoughts struck me in the small German graveyard. First, one wonders at the attitude of the French villagers about a German cemetery in their midst. And also how that attitude may have changed. Today's Europe, with a single currency and a European Parliament in nearby Strasbourg, is a different place than the one which saw two World Wars in the first half of the 20th Century.

Secondly, this small, dark cemetery made me realize the differences between being on the winning and losing sides in war. As Americans, we have to leave the United States to begin to understand this difference. However, it could not be clearer, just as the difference between Meuse-Argonne and the small German cemetery is obvious to any visitor.

Sunday, May 29, 2005
St. Mihiel American Cemetery

On Sunday, May 29th, we attended the annual Memorial Day program at the St. Mihiel American Cemetery near Thiacourt, France. St. Mihiel contains 4,153 graves in four rectangular plots. A huge, Art Deco-style eagle sits in the middle of the cemetery. The cemetery lies right on the side of the road and the grave markers are clearly visible to anyone passing by. The cemetery lies in the heart of what was known as the St. Mihiel "salient," a bulge in the lines formed by German occupation during the war. Under General John Pershing, the American Expeditionary Forces staged its first independent offensive action in reducing the strongly defended pocket of German resistance. Most of the men buried at St. Mihiel died in this operation.

Before the ceremony, we visited the grave of Earl Miller, from tiny Raymond, Illinois. Miller was killed by shrapnel, just as Fred Ziegler had been. Sophia Miller visited her son Earl's grave at St. Mihiel during her 1931 pilgrimage. Mrs. Miller shared a brief account of her trip in the remarkable book, Gold Star Mothers of Illinois, published in 1941. On the eve of World War II, Illinois Gold Star mother Henrietta Haug collected stories of mothers who lost sons in World War I. The book included over a dozen pilgrims' accounts, including Mrs. Miller's, and I turned to Mrs. Haug's book again and again during my research.

At St. Mihiel, Memorial Day was a day of strong friendship between France and the United States. The program featured Americans delivering their remarks in French, and some French participants giving their speeches in English. Marie-Jeanne Bleuzet-Julbin spoke, in French, about her experience in the French Resistance during World War II.

Mme. Bleuzet-Julbin's remarks about World War II took place in the St. Mihiel cemetery, which is the resting place of American war dead from World War I. Although I could understand only a small portion of her speech, in one sense it did not matter. The Memorial Day program at St. Mihiel served only to reinforce the feeling I got at Suresnes earlier in the week. These American cemeteries are alive; they are not just for the dead. Such cemeteries remain a strong focal point today for visitors' stories, remarks, and ceremonies. They are a living canvas on which today we are able to paint our own stories of loss, patriotism, gratitude, or even a 60-year old resistance movement.

Keynote remarks by U.S. Army Brigadier General Randy Johnson underscored the point. He stressed the mission that the St. Mihiel cemetery continues to fulfill. Gen. Johnson spoke of the dead in "silent formation" and lying in "silent ranks." He also referred to the men buried there as the "honored dead still on duty."

And he was right. The cemeteries are still on duty, for Americans and French alike. (I estimate the attendance at the St. Mihiel ceremony at approximately 200 people. Based on the voices I heard the majority were French, not Americans.) The cemeteries continue to serve, just as they are supposed to do.

Having these American cemeteries overseas is a good reminder of the war. Leaving the cemetery and driving through the pleasant countryside gives one no indication of the war that was fought in this little pocket of the Western Front in the First World War.

In short, our vacation to France included elements of a pilgrimage. I'm proud to have visited three of America's eight World War I cemeteries in Europe. Any American who visits France should take the opportunity to do the same.