A sad decision, but doubtlessly the wisest one:
The remains of more than 200 German soldiers who were buried alive in a tunnel in northeastern France during the World War I will not be recovered.
The German government has instead decided to declare the burial site a war memorial and put it under state protection.
The soldiers in question were entombed in the Winterberg tunnel in 1917 after heavy shelling from allied forces. Of the roughly 250 men inside the tunnel at the time of its collapse, only three made it out; they reported hellish conditions inside in which men were dying of thirst and killing themselves.
The tunnel itself is completely sealed and inaccessible; it was only found more than a century after the tragedy. The entrance looks more or less like a hole in the ground, though it does possess a haunting sort of quality, given what we know lays within
Unable to excavate the bodies for a proper burial, the German government is doing the next best thing:
By designating the site a memorial, German and French authorities hope to dignify and protect the soldiers' resting place. "This guarantees that the soldiers will continue to rest in peace," said a Volksbund spokeswoman.
The work between Germany and France, meanwhile, underscores just how far Europe has come since those brutal days of World War I:
"In the past years and months we have been cooperating with our French partners in a spirit of trust," said Dirk Backen, chief executive of the Volksbund.
