ABSTRACT
The era of the world wars in Europe represented a watershed moment in the history of death. The vast number of fatalities, both military and civilian, challenged both the institutional infrastructures in place to take care of their remains as well as the cultural tools available for assigning meaning to violent death on such a wide scale. This led to changes both in the handling of mortal remains as well to the culture of commemoration that surrounded death in warfare—practices that were, at the same time, reflective of wider trends within the cultural history of death.
