Remembrance Day Ceremony

A somber event with tradition takes place every year at the Woodland Cemetery in Kitchener where the German community recalls how this part of the cemetery came into being. 187 German soldiers died while being in Canada as prisoners of war. They were buried in 36 different places and interred here together in 1976. Their graves are now being cared for by the Remembrance Society founded locally a few years ago.

The gravesite cared for by the Remembrance Society of Kitchener

This year marks the 40^th anniversary of this gravesite. Thirty dignitaries came to lay wreaths in commemoration of these soldiers and to remember all victims of war and oppression anywhere, any time. Among them the German Ambassador to Canada Georg Witschel and Consul General Sabine Sparwasser, many German Canadian community leaders and veterans of the Canadian Legions, Naval and Air Force representatives, who know only too well what it means to loose a brother, a comrade, a friend in war.

A musical tribute by the Transylvania Brass Band...
...and the Concordia Choirs under Dr. Alfred Kunz

Gerhard Griebenow lead through the program that started with a musical tribute by the Transylvania Brass Band and the Concordia Choirs under Dr. Alfred Kunz. Pastor Walter Hambrock spoke a prayer, and the short but appropriate shared speeches of Dr. Witschel and Mrs. Sparwasser were followed by the laying of wreaths followed.

German/English speeches by German Ambassador Dr. Georg Witschel and German Consul General Mrs. Sabine Sparwasser

Laying of the wreath

Further musical contributions, including “Ich hat einen Kameraden”, the last Post and Zapfenstreich (tatto) completed the ceremony.

The wreaths

The over 200 people dispersed after visiting some of the graves and joined the organizers at the Concordia Club for Coffee and cake and to receive a truly Canadian Remembrance Pin of poppy with a maple leaf.The over 200 people dispersed after visiting some of the graves and joined the organizers at the Concordia Club for Coffee and cake and to receive a truly Canadian Remembrance Pin of poppy with a maple leaf.

Meeting Fritz Skeries
fltr.: Toni Bergmeier, DKK National; German Ambassador Georg Witschel; German Consul General Sabine Sparwasser; Fritz Skeries; Chairman Gerhard Griebenow

What deserves special mention is the presence of Fritz Skeries, who spent most of the war in the Prison Camp of Gravenhurst and is its last survivor. On the same day he was shot down early in the war, on a fine day in May, he was sent home to Germany years later at the end of hostilities, only to wow to come back. And he did. He immigrated to Canada and actually founded the German School in London.