During the Second World War, more than 400,000 Americans lost their lives. While the war continued, most were laid to rest in temporary cemeteries across Europe, North Africa, and the Pacific. After the conflict ended, the federal government sought a lasting way to honor their sacrifice. Unlike other nations, the United States offered families a choice: the return of their loved ones’ remains for burial in a family cemetery; interment in a national cemetery within the U.S.; or reburial in one of the new overseas military cemeteries designed to permanently commemorate the fallen.
The responsibility for establishing and maintaining these cemeteries abroad fell to the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), an independent agency founded in 1923 to honor those lost in the First World War. The World War II cemeteries it created—distinguished by their striking rows of white crosses and Stars of David—have become enduring symbols of the conflict. Today, ABMC cemeteries honor service members at iconic sites such as the Normandy beachheads, the Ardennes, and the Italian peninsula, as well as at more than a dozen other locations worldwide.
Christopher Hamner, associate professor of history at George Mason University, shares the design and layout of some of those cemeteries and examines how decisions made in the late 1940s and 1950s helped to shape the way Americans remember World War II. Comparisons with British and German cemeteries of that era highlight the unique ways in which the United States chose to commemorate its war dead.
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