November 11 is a moment of time in the year to remember those who fought and lost their lives in earlier wars.
And Belgium remembers with ceremonies around the country, because it wasa fulcrum for so many wars. The Menin Gate in Ypres is the centre of these memorials, as it commemorates the fallen dead each evening. It is recognized around the world as the monument to remember those that died in that hideous conflagration and beyond.
Post 1918 several war memorials were erected around Europe as a way to remember and respect those who had died or been injured in the First World War, a war to “end all wars” according to some politicians and commentators at the time. Tombs to the “unknown soldier” were swiftly erected in Paris, London and Moscow and other European cities to commemorate the many who had fallen, and 30 years later, post the Second World War, these acknowledgements were further decorated, partly to respect the generation who died during the 1939-45 war, but later those whose fell in the Korean War and beyond.
Now those celebrations, close to the date of the start of the First World War, recognize the efforts of many who should also respected as they bravely fought including civilians who died too.
