War remembrance in a sacralized space of memory: The origins and evolution of Volkstrauertag in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

Abstract

In 1970, the remains of 187 German prisoners-of-war who died in Canada during World Wars I and II were transferred from three dozen sites across the country to a central burial ground in Kitchener, Ontario. Since then, a remembrance event ( Volkstrauertag) has been organized each November by members of the local German-Canadian community at the German War Graves in Kitchener’s Woodland Cemetery. I address the initial controversy that surrounded the decision to establish a central war cemetery to German prisoners-of-war. I then explore the evolving narrative that underlies the local annual remembrance ceremony and reveal incidents where the German War Graves temporarily became a contested site of memory. I conclude by arguing that, in contrast to observations of the event in Germany, the formative tradition of commemorating all-victims-of-war rather than simply the German war dead has not only been maintained in Kitchener but has broadened in recent years.