One of my intentions for coming here was to find Oma’s grave, pay respects, maybe put flowers on it, make it look good, etc. Because I had a feeling nobody had ever done any of those things. Oma had friends at that time but they are long gone now. And certainly nobody from the United States, whom I know of, had ever visited the grave.

Sarrebourg has only two cemeteries and one of them is Jewish, so I went to the other one. This is the bigger of the two. I walked in and started my search. I walked down each row in each section, looking at every name. It took me almost two hours to cover the entire cemetery. I did not find Oma’s grave anywhere.

I got discouraged and walked back into town to get a haircut. I mentioned my morning in the cemetery to the lady cutting my hair. Two other ladies in the place overheard this and started offering all kinds of advice. They said I should go to La Mairie and see if they knew anything. So, after my haircut I took a walk up there and talked to the girl at the front desk. She took notes and said she’d pass them on to the right person, asked for my email, and said I’ll probably hear back from somebody the next day.

Next day I went back to the cemetery to try again, and this time noticed a small building off to one side that I had overlooked the day before. I took a look at the sign by the door and saw that it was an office for the caretakers of the cemetery. Sarrebourg has a special city department devoted to the cemeteries. I went in and found three people working there. One of them had me take a seat and asked what I wanted. I told her I was looking for Oma’s grave, so she pulled out a thick book and found Oma pretty quickly. She told me the section, row, and site number. However, she also told me that Oma’s grave had been removed about 12 years ago. Somebody else now occupies that site. Oma, along with Grandma’s brother Joseph, were transferred to a pit located just outside the main part of the cemetery. The pit is a large concrete vault thingy with a couple of access ports on top. I hate to imagine what’s in it.

Supposedly the reason for the pit is because there’s only so much room in the cemetery and if your site isn’t « in perpetuity » somebody has to renew the lease before it runs out. Otherwise it defaults and the site gets reused.

So that’s how it ends. My search for Oma is done. I will leave Sarrebourg tomorrow morning.