The German war dead from the Normandy campaign were scattered over a wide 
area, many of them buried in isolated or field graves - or small battlefield 
cemeteries. In the years following WW2, the German War Graves Commission, 
Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge, decided to establish six main 
German cemeteries in the Normandy area, with the one here at La Cambe 
started in 1954. During this period the remains of more than 12,000 German 
soldiers were moved in from 1,400 locations in the departements of Calvados 
and the Orne. The cemetery was finished in 1961, and inaugurated in 
September of that year. Since this date more than 700 soldiers have been 
found on the battlefield, and are now also buried here.

In total there are 21,222 German soldiers commemorated here, of which 207 
unknown and 89 identified are buried in a kamaradengraben (or mass grave) 
below the central tumulus.

Since the mid-1990s there has been an Information Centre on the site. Here 
you can see a permanent exhibition about the Volksbund Deutsche 
Kriegsgräberfürsorge, check casualties on a computer based database and 
there are also toilet facilities.

The cemetery is open daily from 08.00 - 19.00. The Information Centre is 
open daily from 08.00 - 12.00 and 13.00 - 19.00.