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Each year, wreaths are placed at the Kindergraves at Kaiserlsautern’s cemetery during the annual Kindergraves memorial ceremony.
The annual Kindergraves memorial ceremony will take place Saturday at the Kaiserslautern main cemetery (Waldfriedhof).
From 1952 to 1971, American infants who died at birth or shortly after birth at the American military hospital at Landstuhl or at nearby civilian hospitals were buried in the Kaiserslautern main cemetery in an area designated as the “American Kindergraves.”
The Kindergraves serve as the final resting place for 451 American children of service men and women
serving in Europe during the Cold War.
Since 1961, members of the German-American and International Women’s Club and the Ramstein Area Chiefs’ Group maintain the gravesites. Parents, siblings and other family members have been coming to Kaiserslautern to visit the memorial site ever since.
During Saturday’s ceremony, KMC officials will offer speeches and lay wreaths. Attendees will meet at 9:45 a.m. at Daenner Chapel on Mannheimer Strasse in Kaiserslautern.
The Air Force JROTC Color Guard will lead the procession to the gravesite where floral wreaths will be placed at the front monument. A candle lighting ceremony will also be held in memory of the children.
The memorial ceremony is a public event open to the entire community.
After the ceremony, there will be a reception in the chapel.
For more information regarding the ceremony and the history of the Kaiserslautern Kindergraves, visit Kaiserslautern-kindergraves.org.
