Lecture 23 - Death, Grief and Commemorance PDF

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Senior Lecturer David Monger...

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The scale of death was almost unimaginable. You can’t watch the extensive scenes of death without expressing emotion. Modern day contemporaries can’t comprehend the grief or death without seeing the effect on culture. Whatever aspect of war you talk about is governed by death. The experiences of grief and death was unique to individuals and the cultural and social reactions to the war were usually related to death. Specifically since 1918. The Death Toll: 9.45 million people died and there were high numbers of civilians this included one million Armenians. As many as 21 million died in the post-war flu epidemic and the deaths from disease are still considered natural as people catch the flu and die. Combat deaths were considered unnatural as it was seen as extreme violence and death was viewed with customs limited to the 1920s which gave people the chance to say goodbye to loved ones specifically after long periods and the war meant that men couldn’t be buried near families and this was classed as unnatural to wider society as generally you had been able to treat the body of your dead relative with care and respect. By October 1917 over 500,000 horses were dead in France and 250,000 in Britain. Germany lost the most men followed by Russia. Russia lost 1500, Germany lost 1300 every day, France lost 800 per day and Britain lost 400 every day. New Zealand lost 12% of their mobilized forces and Australia 14%. Lost Generations: Statistics do not permit genuine use of this phrase as many men returned and even though many civilians lost a relative or close friend. Some have localised examples as homes of badly affected Pals Battalions suggest that the wider knowledge can be overshot. The total war ethos encouraged by war may have played a part as British and even if their relatives were not directly affected they may imagine themselves in the same position and the loss of young men was widely felt more. The contemporary impact of death: Every day was more difficult through the fear of death, servicemen know that the chance of death was high when near the front line. The men are regularly faced with death as bodies were encased in mud as well as the smell of decomposing bodies. Families also endured daily anxiety about death as the costs of living increases and limited news from the war as them worried. Commemoration: Some nationalities such as America and France allowed families to reclaim remains for private burial but British authorities prevented the remains from being removed. This meant that people who were poorer and couldn’t afford this meant that they were not to suffer as richer families could take their men home. The gravestones would be the same and are all uniformed the memorials made in home before the war ended allowed people to have a place to commemorate. There were 38,213 memorials that were publically created in Britain. Personal memorials allowed people to grieve in private....