AN INERNATIONAL summer work camp to help in reconstruction of the largest cemetery of military victims of World War I in Slovakia was held in mid-June in Veľkrop in eastern Slovakia. Forty volunteers organised by the Visegrad Working Group for War Cemeteries came from non-governmental organisations in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia to help renovate the site. The NGOs were joined this year by a group from Romania and by other Slovak volunteers.
“This is the largest World War I cemetery in Slovakia,” Martin Drobňák, head of the Club of Military History, told the TASR newswire. “According to the latest research some 10,000 soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian and Russian armies are buried here.” The identities of most of the soldiers are not known as Drobňák noted that “we know the names of only 11 of the soldiers buried here”.
Renovation of the cemetery began in 2009 by removing wood destroyed by water seepage and adjusting the terrain. Last year paths were laid out and the surroundings of the graves were rearranged.
“We hope to finish in 2014 for the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the World War I,” Drobňák stated.
