ABSTRACT
The Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. (VDK) is a humanitarian organization charged by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany with recording, maintaining and caring for the graves of German war casualties abroad. The Volksbund provides information to relatives on all matters related to war graves, advises public and private institutions, promotes international cooperation in the area of war grave maintenance, and encourages young people to come together to learn at the last resting places of war casualties. These vast burial grounds are reminders of the past but also confront the living with the consequences of war and violence. This chapter presents on the history and organization of the VDK as well as the management of its cemeteries in Normandy.
