Project Description
During the two world wars, the enemy died at home in both Britain and Germany, whether in combat, in hospital or behind the wire as prisoners of war. Yet, the complex history of these enemy war dead is largely absent from the existing historiography and has also faded from public memory. This project shines a light on the thousands of soldiers and civilians who ended up buried in scattered cemeteries across Britain and Germany. Returning this group to discussions of war and remembrance also provides a unique way of reconsidering the often-thwart British-German relationship in modern times. For years, even decades, the enemy dead were often a part of local communities’ own memory culture; they took on the care of the graves and also the job of communicating with bereaved relatives overseas. It was only with the decision to concentrate the dead into new national cemeteries that these close, organic relationships between British and German communities ended. With the enemy removed, the British and Germans could instead concentrate solely on their own war dead, and on their own country’s wartime sacrifices. At a time of strained British-German relations, which often still play out in the shadow of the world wars, this project highlights an alternative history of suffering, loss and mutual support.
Personal Bio
Tim Grady is Professor of Modern European History at the University of Chester. He has published widely on British and German history from the time of the First World War onwards. His earlier work focused on Jewish lives in the Great War, resulting in two major publications: The German-Jewish Soldiers of the First World War in History and Memory (Liverpool University Press, 2011) and A Deadly Legacy: German Jews and the Great War (Yale University Press, 2017). More recently, he has been the co-investigator on a new study of interwar European fascism which has led to the volume: European Fascist Movements: A Sourcebook (Routledge, 2023). His latest research project, which explores the deaths of the wartime enemy in Britain and Germany, is due to be published by Yale University Press in 2025.