Remember Me: Cemetery Multichoice Edition Quiz

Answer: Highgate Cemetery, London, England

Karl Marx (1818 -1883) was a philosopher, economist, political theorist, historian, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist. Born in the Kingdom of Prussia, he is famous for the 1848 publication "The Communist Manifesto" written with Friedrich Engels.

Marx was expelled from Germany, France and Belgium for his political views and he moved to London in 1849 where he continued to write and published his most famous work, "Das Kapital". He remained stateless until his death and was buried in Highgate cemetery in London's east.

Originally buried in a simple grave in the cemetery's agnostic and atheists area his tomb, and his families, were moved in 1954 to their todays prominent position.

The Communist Party of Great Britain paid for the ornate tomb and huge monument that are there today. It consists of the large marble pedestal with the huge bronze bust on top. The tomb is engraved with two of his famous quotes:

"Workers of All Lands Unite" - the final line of The Communist Manifesto and "The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways - the point however is to change it" from "Thesis on Feuerbach"

Answer: Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, France

The cemetery is located on a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach, one of the American landing beaches of the Normandy Invasion, and the English Channel. It was built upon the temporary St Laurent War Cemetery and dedicated in 1956.

It covers 172 acres and had 9,387 military graves, most of whom died at the D-Day beaches and the following operations. On 19 June 2018, Julius Pieper was laid to rest next to his twin brother, Ludwig Pieper, and became the 9,388th service member to be buried there.

This does not represent all those that died - the families of the soldiers were given the option of repatriating them for burial in the US. Many chose to leave them with the men they fell with, in the land where there deaths led to freedom.

The cemetery is in the shape of a Latin cross. The chapel is at the centre where it looks towards the bottom where there is the reflecting pool with the Memorial behind it. The famous statue stands in front of it, arms outstretched and looking toward the sky while his body appears to be rising from the waves below.

The memorial has a semicircular colonnade which contains maps and information. To the east is the Wall of the Missing which lists the names of all those declared missing in action during Operation Overlord. It contains 1,557 names, 19 of them have a bronze rosette next to them meaning that they have since been found and identified.

Answer: East - Pere-Lachaise

Pere Lachaise Cemetery is one of the most famous and visited cemeteries in the world. Established in 1804 it serves as the final resting place for numerous notable individuals making it a cultural and historical landmark.

From the main entry if you follow the Avenue Principale to its end (about one third of the cemetery length) this memorial sits in front of the chapel. Just called the Aux Morts, which means 'To the Dead', it was created by French painter and sculptor Paul-Albert Bartholomé who spent four years building it from 1891 - 1895.

The upper tier of the monument shows a couple passing through the doorway from life to death. Around the door on both sides are a group of men, women and children; those on the left are representing the grievers left behind and on the right are those heading towards death themselves.

Beneath it death itself is shown with a dead couple and their child with "l'Esprit de vie et de lumière" extending her arms towards them. This is a depiction Bartholeme has used before, its translation means 'the spirit of life and light'.

The inner tomb is also now used as an ossuary and has thousands of Parisian remains inside. Whenever a cemetery was closed or tombs were reclaimed for any reason the bones were placed inside.

Answer: Musicians

The Wiener Zentralfriedhof (Vienna Central Cemetery) refers to it being the largest as it is actually on the outskirts not in Central Vienna. Vienna has nearly 50 cemeteries within its borders, but Zentralfriedhof is by far the largest and not just in Vienna - by numbers interred within, as opposed to size, it is one of the largest in the world.

It is renowned as the burial place for many famous musicians/composers. Once it became established as such they actually 'imported some', moving both Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schuberts graves from the Währinger Ostfriedhof.

One they couldn't move was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, he is buried at the nearby St Marx Cemetery. An edict at the time was for graves to be unmarked so no-one is exactly sure where his body is. Many attempts have been made to find it with no success.

In 1855 a gravestone was erected at what was presumed to be the correct spot - this was removed to Zentralfriedhof. Later a memorial tablet was put in its place and then a monument in 1950.

The Zentralfriedhof has a massive memorial with this stone in the centre of the 'composer's corner'. They are not all buried there but Beethoven sits on one side and Schubert the other.

The Strauss family is nearby; Johann Strauss I and his three sons Johann Strauss II, Eduard Strauss and Josef Strauss - all three were also composers.

Christoph Willibald Gluck and Antonio Salieri are also there plus at least 20 other composers and many more labelled as musicians only. I imagine Salieri is one person who is glad that Mozart didn't make it over.

The photo shows the four that I thought showed the clues the easiest. If you look you will notice they all have a harp/lyre on the tombs. Most of them do this as part of 'cemetery art' but some are moulded into the tomb itself and not as easy to see.

1. Johann Strauss Vater (Father) - Displayed at top of pyramid.
2. Johann Strauss Fils (Son) - A lady is actually playing a harp in this one, a cherub with a violin above her and above that (probably too small in this picture) are cherubs singing and waltzing.
3. Franz Schubert - A bit harder to see but the gold on the base are the strings of a lyre.
4. Ludwig van Beethoven - Centre stage in gold.

Answer: Hawaii

This is the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii. It marks the spot where the Arizona went down during the Pearl Harbour Attack by the Japanese on 7 December 1941. Only 335 men survived, 1171 sailors lost their lives in the tragedy and most of them went down with the ship and could not be recovered so it was declared a war grave and left as a permanent memorial. Anywhere from 85 -150 remains were recovered but could not be identified.

It is still considered an active U.S. military cemetery and any survivors of the attack could/can have their ashes either scattered in the water over the ship or have them interred in the wreck by US Navy Divers. The urns are placed in the wall of gun turret number four.

Ken Potts, who died on 21 April 2023, at 102 was the second last survivor. He chose not to return to the Arizona, joking that he got off once and wasn't going back on. Flags were still flown at half-mast until 28 April at the Pearl Harbor memorial.

The last surviving member Lou Contor sent his greetings to the ceremony in Dec. 2023 from Grass Valley California but could not attend for health reasons.

The memorial was built in 1962 and straddles the hull of the wreck but does not touch it. It contains one of the ships anchors and one of its bells. There is obviously a lot of historical information, and it has an opening in the floor at the point they cross where visitors can see the decks below and toss flowers if they choose.

Answer: Tibet

This particular photo is of the Hanging Coffins at Sagada, Mountain Province in the Philippines. The custom is for the elderly to carve their own coffins out of hollowed logs. If they are elderly, too ill or die suddenly their families will do it for them.

They are either taken to a cave and hung inside or over the face of the cliffs where their ancestors were placed. The coffins eventually deteriorate and fall leaving room for newer ones. Having said that some are over a century old.

The reason behind the practise is that it is believed that the higher the dead are placed the better chance of the spirits reaching a higher nature in their afterlife. Parts of China and Indonesia also follow this custom.

This is something that would not happen in Tibet. Their preferred method of burial is a Sky or Celestial Burial. This is where the body is placed on a mountaintop to decompose naturally either by elemental exposure or eaten by scavengers. In Tibet this is usually vultures.

There were two rationales for this. One is purely practical as most of their ground is rocky and frozen which is very hard to dig graves in. They are also looking at the fact that the vultures don't have enough of an animal population to survive so they are providing them with food.

The second is more spiritual, it is in understanding that the human body is an impermanent physical structure that is not needed once physical life is over. It is also good spiritual energy to be generous in feeding the birds.

Sky burials are not performed when people die from poison, infectious diseases or suicide as they can contaminate the birds.

Answer: Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh

Greyfriars Kirkyard is the graveyard surrounding Greyfriars Kirk (Church) in Edinburgh, Scotland. Its name came from the Franciscan friary that was on the site which was dissolved in 1560 - the monks wore grey habits.

The Kirkyard is famous for its tale of Greyfriars Bobby, a Skye or Dandie Dinmont Terrier, who lived from 1855 - 1872. There are a few variations out there but I'm going to stick with the best-known version.

Bobby belonged to a nightwatchman for the Edinburgh City Police called John Gray. When John died he was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, Bobby became known for sitting and guarding his masters grave for 14 years until his own death.

The Lord Provost of Edinburgh, Sir William Chambers, who luckily also happened to be the director of the Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, gave Bobby a collar and paid for his licence.

He died in 1872 and a necropsy concluded he had died from cancer of the jaw. He is buried somewhere in or just outside the east gates of the kirkyard, there are differing stories as to its position.

A headstone was erected in 1981 that reads, "Greyfriars Bobby - Died 14 January 1872 - Aged 16 years - Let his loyalty and devotion be a lesson to us all".

In 2001 this new monument in the photo was placed close to the headstone at the east wall to mark the 150th anniversary of his death. The statue is very similar to the famous sculpture atop a water fountain that was put up the year after his death opposite the entrance to the churchyard.

Answer: French - Diggers

This memorial at Ari Burnu, a cape at the north end of Anzac Cove, was erected in 1984. The quote is attributed to Mustafa Kemal, Ataturk, the first President of the Republic of Turkey. It reads:

"Those heroes who shed their blood and lost their lives! You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.
Atatürk, 1934"

There were many names used by many countries for each other during all the wars. Some friendly and others definitely derogatory. These refer to WWI names.

Apart from Abdul the Australians also referred to the Turkish at Gallipoli as Johnny Turk and Jacko which I can find no data as to why.

The English were called Tommies by most allied countries. It originated from the name 'Thomas Atkins' which was the sample name that the Duke of Wellington put on the first British army sample pay-book.

Although the Americans were commonly called Doughboys (multiple different explanations) the Australians in WWI referred to them as Sammies - taken from Uncle Sam.

Jerry was a polite name that many used for the Germans, probably just a short form of German, but there was a later theory that it came from the shape of their helmets which resembled a chamber pot or jeroboam.

Even if the above may be different than people are used to simple elimination should have given you this answer. Australians, and by association other allies, always referred to themselves as Diggers.

The French were generally called Poilu, meaning 'hairy one' as they often had facial hair.

Answer: Louisiana

The city of New Orleans has a long history of above ground burials as it is slightly below sea level and people's remains were rising out of the ground! In response it opened its first St Louis Cemetery (now called # 1) in 1789 and only allowed above ground mausoleums or crypts. St Louis Cemetery # 2 was opened in 1823 and # 3 in 1854 and all follow the same rules.

Above-ground burials are sometimes referred to as tombs, the coffin is covered in soil and the tomb is sealed. Crypts are traditionally beneath the floors of churches but can be used when it is built to hold a coffin or urn in a concrete chamber.

St Louis Cemetery # 3 was heavily flooded during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, apart from some plaster damage caused by the debris, the tombs remained unscathed.

Louisiana was a Roman Catholic colony with a close relationship between church and state during the period these cemeteries were built, and it is the only one that has a need for an aboveground cemetery due to flooding. Vermont, Idaho and Utah are all well landlocked and have no history of floods.

Answer: The Sound of Music

Petersfriedhof is in Salzburg, Austria and is its oldest cemetery. It is located at the foot of the Hohensalzburg Castle which is on top of Festungsberg Mountain.

It originated in 698 when St Peters Abbey was established next to it, but it is on a much older burial site. The oldest tombstone dates to 1288. It is now the oldest cemetery still in use today in all of Austria. Only priests and monks were allowed to be buried there until 1454 but it has had many well-known burials since that time including the composer Michael Haydn, younger brother of Joseph, and Maria Anna Mozart, elder sister of Wolfgang Amadeus.

Much of 1965 musical "The Sound of Music" was filmed in and around Salzburg but they were not allowed to film in certain areas. The cemetery inspired the filmmakers, and they recreated it in Hollywood to use in filming toward the end of the movie when the Von Trapps are escaping. Anyone who has seen the movie should recognise it from the scene where the Nazis are searching for them, and they are hidden inside it behind the tombs.