Cimetière militaire Munster: a place of stories

Munster Cemetery in Alsace is a place of stories. It tells of the worldness of war. From here I can see the graves of men who were French, German, British, Chinese, Jewish, Canadian and Muslim. Cimetière militaire Munster is at the back of the civic cemetery. It has a quiet, spacious dignity and though it flies a French flag, the graves of all are immaculate. Just looking at one small row of ten French graves tells the story of the war-stripped  mountains and wrecked valley-bed villages so bitterly fought for, so close by: ten men killed at Stosswihr, at Sattel, at Soultzbach; ten men brought from cemeteries at Ampfersbach, Stosswihr, Wihr-au-Val, Breitenbach, Metzeral in the early 1920s and reinterred. Paul from the Loire was 21, Gilbert from Allier was 41. Three of the ten are from Gérardmer, killed 30 kilometres from their loved ones at home. When these ten died, the…