The proposed extension of a motorway near Passendale will take it right through a WW1 Battlefield. This is the final resting place of some 40,000 unknown British soldiers who were never recovered from the mud. This film examines the conflict between the need for progress and the desire to retain the sanctity of a site where so many fell.
Building a road on Pilkem ridge would have in no way diminished the way the people of Ypres remember the fallen. Ypres is full of museums, cemetaries and small patches of preserved/restored trenches, and every day they play the Last post in their honor.
As the Ypres mayor after the war said: leaving Ypres in ruins would do nothing more but fulfill the death sentence the Germans cast over her. These brave soldiers died so Ypres could LIVE free again, not for it to remain in ruins.
Cadmuss 2 years ago
Was in wipers this weekend and visited quite a few cemeteries. That area needs to remain as it was. And the young, especially British young, need to know what happened and need to be reminded how lucky they really are...Thank you for posting this.
wapdink 3 years ago
part 2
In order to show the horrors of war the suffering ,destruction wars provoke should be preserved for future generations to see.
What is therefore at stake is not just the fallen in WW1.
What is at stake is the future .
If memory is preserved future generations have a slight chance of not repeating the errors of the past.
The official quoted in the beginning of my post was not smart.
Peter42y 3 years ago
part 1
"i really think living people should be prioritised over dead soldiers of WW1."
at 3 11 a guy says that.
Such argument is stupid.
santayana wrote
' Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.'.The best way to ensure is to show younger generations the horrors of war.
Peter42y 3 years ago