Julius Erasmus, who did something different from everyone else.

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Julius was an engineer officer (Pionierhauptmann) in the Wehrmacht. During the fighting in Aachen (12 September – 21 October 1944), his house was destroyed, and his wife and child were killed. This personal loss shaped his later actions.

After the war and having lost his entire family and left completely alone, he returned in 1945 to the Hürtgen Forest, where a major battle had previously taken place (19 September – 16 December 1944). There, he was shocked to find himself surrounded by hundreds of corpses of his fallen former comrades, still unburied since no one had taken the trouble to bury them after the German defeat at war. So, he decided on his own to take on this duty toward them by burying them one by one in the municipal cemetery of Vossenack nearby.

He dug single graves by hand with a spade, identifying the dead when possible, and marking them with wooden crosses. In cases where soldiers carried dog tags, he tried to record their names.It should be noted that the forest remained dangerous, as beyond the disease that always surrounds unburied dead soldiers, there were many active mines infesting the area, patiently waiting to claim victims even after the war had ended. About 100 people lost their lives during the subsequent mine clearance and recovery of the corpses. Erasmus began his work alone, but soon found support from men from the surrounding villages and especially from the priest of the village of Vossenack, Werner Eschweiler.

When the cemetery became full and after he had already earned the nickname “the gravedigger of Vossenack,” an organization provided the resources for the creation of a military cemetery on Hill 470 near the area, and even hired Erasmus as staff. The Allies initially tolerated his work, though he was doing it unofficially at first. Later, in 1949, he cooperated with the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (German War Graves Commission). Besides Germans, he also buried soldiers of other nationalities when he found them — though the official cemetery at Vossenack was designated for Germans.

Asked about his motives for his work, Erasmus stated:
‘In the summer of 1945 I returned to Vossenack. I had lost all my belongings. The war had taken everything from me. And then I found them in the roadside ditches, at the edge of the forest, under shattered trees. I simply could not bear to see them lying there, unburied and forgotten. It gave me no peace.’

He left Vossenack, and eventually died in 1971, completely forgotten. The result of his actions, beyond the establishment of the military cemetery for the fallen, was the burial of 1,569 dead German soldiers. Today, the military cemetery at Vossenack explicitly mentions him at the entrance, recognizing his unique contribution. Visitors often hear his story as part of tours in the Hürtgen Forest.

Sources:

https://www.liberationroute.com/de/stories/58/julius-erasmus

https://www.kreis-dueren.de/kreishaus/amt/amt18/kriegsgraeberstaette_vossenack.php