SIGOLSHEIM FRENCH NATIONAL CEMETERY
La Nécropole Nationale de Sigolsheim
Haut-Rhin
France
GPS Coordinates: 48°08'27.5"N 7°18'34.0"E
Image © Johan Pauwels
Location Information
Sigolsheim French National Cemetery is located between Sigolsheim and Bennwihr in the Haut-Rhin region of France. The Necropole is signposted from the Rue de l'Oberhof in the North of Sigolsheim.
Historical Information
Located in one of the deadliest areas of the Alsace front, Sigolsheim National Cemetery is home to soldiers who died for France during the Battle of the Colmar Pocket (5 December 1944 – 9 February 1945). It was Marshall Lattre de Tassigny, former Commander of the First French Army, who wanted this military cemetery built. Construction work took place from 1962 to 1965 and the cemetery was inaugurated on 2 May 1965 by the Minister of Veterans Affairs and Madame de Lattre de Tassigny. The cemetery houses the bodies of soldiers exhumed from communal cemeteries in Haut Rhin, Vosges and Territoire de Belfort.
The cemetery contains the bodies of 1,589 French soldiers buried in individual graves, including 792 graves of North African soldiers and 15 Jewish soldiers’ graves.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the liberation of Colmar and to symbolise the fighters’ sacrifice, the military authorities decided that soldiers who helped to liberate the city would also be buried in the same cemetery. The village of Sigolsheim, which lay at the heart of the battle, and hotly disputed right up to the final hours of fighting, was chosen as the site for the cemetery, on the slopes of the hill that was known to the enemy as Blutberg or “Blood Hill”.
Construction was entrusted to the architect Michel Porte. Located 358 metres above sea level, this military cemetery is arranged into twelve rounded terraces, and designed to be seen from the Kaysersberg valley, as well as from Colmar and all the surrounding areas.
Total Burials: 1,589.
Sigolsheim French National Cemetery is located between Sigolsheim and Bennwihr in the Haut-Rhin region of France. The Necropole is signposted from the Rue de l'Oberhof in the North of Sigolsheim.
Historical Information
Located in one of the deadliest areas of the Alsace front, Sigolsheim National Cemetery is home to soldiers who died for France during the Battle of the Colmar Pocket (5 December 1944 – 9 February 1945). It was Marshall Lattre de Tassigny, former Commander of the First French Army, who wanted this military cemetery built. Construction work took place from 1962 to 1965 and the cemetery was inaugurated on 2 May 1965 by the Minister of Veterans Affairs and Madame de Lattre de Tassigny. The cemetery houses the bodies of soldiers exhumed from communal cemeteries in Haut Rhin, Vosges and Territoire de Belfort.
The cemetery contains the bodies of 1,589 French soldiers buried in individual graves, including 792 graves of North African soldiers and 15 Jewish soldiers’ graves.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the liberation of Colmar and to symbolise the fighters’ sacrifice, the military authorities decided that soldiers who helped to liberate the city would also be buried in the same cemetery. The village of Sigolsheim, which lay at the heart of the battle, and hotly disputed right up to the final hours of fighting, was chosen as the site for the cemetery, on the slopes of the hill that was known to the enemy as Blutberg or “Blood Hill”.
Construction was entrusted to the architect Michel Porte. Located 358 metres above sea level, this military cemetery is arranged into twelve rounded terraces, and designed to be seen from the Kaysersberg valley, as well as from Colmar and all the surrounding areas.
Total Burials: 1,589.
