Jay Winter

The Romanian-born surrealist painter Victor Brauner acted as a medium

In France, a visitor to any major town or village will encounter a monumen t aux morts. This funereal term locates French war memorials within a tradition of suffering and sacrifice. In Britain and other Anglo-Saxon countries, and in Germany and Austria, the visitor will soon find his way to the local war memorial or Kriegerdenkmal.

From the Acropolis to the Arc de Triomphe, war memorials have been central to the history of European architecture and public sculpture.