Normandy: the stele of a Nazi officer has vanished – The Point

The stele of an SS officer, a formidable tank commander, was recently stolen from a German cemetery in the municipality of La Cambe, Calvados, was it announced Tuesday the mayor of the commune. “The stele of Michael Wittmann was stolen a few days ago,” are we told German local source. “This is a square tombstone, screwed to the floor, with the name (the officer) engraved, but without any inscription” regarding his SS regiments did was added the same source. “A complaint was made to the police,” Did you said.

“We must respect the dead”

According to this source, many visitors of the cemetery, including the English and the Americans, regularly go to this stele because of the reputation of the officer, considered one of the most formidable leaders of German tank. “The monument will be replaced,” was it added. “Even though it was a German officer, it must respect the dead,” he told AFP the mayor of La Cambe, Bernard Lenice.

Some 21,000 German soldiers who fell during the battle of Normandy are buried in the cemetery of La Cambe.