They Did Not Choose Their Burial—A Desecrated Memorial Restored

Above is my own photo of  what was one of the most moving memorials on the Western Front when I was leading battlefield tours. It was located on the Plateau de California (below), part of the former Chemin des Dames battlefield of 1917. The bronze 12-foot tall sculpture featured 20 heads heads trapped in a metal mesh, recalling the thousands of Poilus trapped and killed in the failed Nivelle Offensive.

The Plateau After the War, Near the Site of the 1998 Memorial

After my first visit to the memorial, when I saw the powerful impact it had on my group, I tried to fit in in a stop there on future itineraries, whenever possible.  Then came a trip in 2015.  I gave the sculpture a big build up as we left the bus, but as I got closer to the site,  I started to feel disoriented and embarrassed.  The monument was nowhere to be found and I couldn't explain its disappearance. Whatever news there was about the fate of the work had not reached the United States.  

Detail from the Original Work

Subsequently, I learned that it had been stolen in the dark of night the previous August.  It had been melted down and only a small piece of the 1.5-ton work had been found, in Belgium.  Even worse news—the artist, Haïm Kern, had declared that there was no way he could reproduce it. I also learned that the destruction was the third time the piece had been desecrated. I could understand that Mr. Kern could be dismayed over the brutality and criminality directed at his creation.

Artist Haïm Kern Working on the Replacement

However,  something turned matters around, and the artist went back to work and designed a replacement and a more secure location was found.  The replica of They Did Not Choose Their Burial was inaugurated by the President of the Republic, François Hollande, on 16 April 2017, on the occasion of the centenary of the Nivelle offensive. The new work is in an enclosed, protected terrace at the Caverne du Dragon (another monument to the sacrifices of 1917) three miles west of the original location.

The second sculpture is not quite a duplicate of the original piece.  It's somewhat larger. Kern wanted to add three more heads in recognition of the three desecrations and more  fluid looking. "More in motion, a vegetal movement. I like to think that I took a piece of the Plateau forest for it. being on the terrace,"  he said in an interview. He also made sure the new busts were all youthful looking because, "The sculpture is about about the "Destruction of all these young lives [and] soldiers were often very young.” 

New Statue, New Location, Same Battlefield