La Cambe

Assigned the invariably awkward task of devising a memorial grounds for the German WWII dead, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge came up with the idea for La Cambe, a 5-acre Normandy graveyard housing the remains of over 20,000 dead. The gravestones hold the shape of the German military Iron Cross; they are short, squat, and pitch black, comprised as they are of volcanic ash.

In order to comprehend the full effect, one should note that Colleville (the Normandy American Cemetery at St. Laurent), is situated nearby. The headstones there are also crosses, but they are leaner and taller, and cut of pristine-white marble. The contradiction conjures up the moronic image of a chess set. This is not the last of the somber implications.