War graves monument with Nazi links found in Switzerland

The controversial monument to German war dead is one of many memorials around Switzerland that have provoked heated debate. Volksbund German War Graves Commission

A monument to German war dead, which has links to Nazi sympathisers, is the source of embarrassment in a city in southeast Switzerland.

The large stone monument has been discovered by Swiss public television SRF in a cemetery in Chur, where it was erected in 1938.

It was built by the German War Graves Commission to commemorate soldiers lost during World War I. The problem is that the War Graves Commission was deeply influenced by Nazi philosophy in the 1930s.

The organisation had hoped to erect a number of monuments in German-speaking Switzerland in the same era, but the plan was stopped by adverse public sentiment, according to SRF.

After World War II, Switzerland purged Nazi groups and their supporters from the country. But the monument was left behind and forgotten about until now.

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“I didn’t know anything about it,” Chur mayor Urs Marti told SRF. “It irritates me that there is a monument to the National Socialists in Chur.”

The city has yet to decide what to do about the 13-ton granite monument.

Switzerland has been part of a global debate over controversial historical monuments in the last few years.

Several monuments linked to slavery and racism in different locations have come under the spotlight.