Damvillers

Heinrich stayed that night in a quaint French Inn named the Croix Blanche. The name means the White Cross. The hotel was right in the middle of the little town. Across the street was the town chapel. It was hundreds of years old. A sign outside the church complained that almost a hundred years ago the Germans had stolen the bell from the church tower. There have been lots of wars in this part of Europe.

From the window in Heinrich room he could look out a see the old church. He tried to take a picture but the church was so close he couldn't get the whole thing in one picture. Heinrich did take a picture of the courtyard of the church from his window. It is really nice being able to be right in the middle of so much history.

Heinrich went down to see the memorial in the courtyard a little more closely. There were lots of French flags and a statue of a French soldier from World War I. This was a terrible war where lots of people died.

When Heinrich more closely at the statue, he noticed that there were many names written on the sides of the monument. All of the names on the left and some of the names on the right were the names of soldiers who had died from the village. The rest of the names on the right side were normal people, civilians from the village who had also died. All of these people from this little tiny town had been killed in just a couple of years. There were only about 40 or 50 homes in the whole town. Almost one person for each house.