Menin Gate exit simply cut through the remains of the ramparts and crossed a moat. The gateway was by this time known as the Menenpoort, or Menin Gate in English, because the road leading through the gateway led to the small town of Menen. Ypres occupied a strategic position during the First World War because it stood in the path of Germany's planned sweep across the rest of Belgium, as had been called for in the Schlieffen Plan. By October 1914, the much battered Belgian Army broke the dykes on the Yser River to the north of the City to keep the
Memorial to Polish Soldiers and German Anti-Fascists Memorial to Polish Soldiers and German Anti-Fascists The Memorial to Polish Soldiers and German Anti-Fascists (; ) is a war memorial in Berlin, dedicated in 1972. Built by the German Democratic Republic during the division of Germany, it is today the principal German monument to the Polish soldiers who died in World War II, as well as an important monument to the German resistance. The monument is located in Volkspark Friedrichshain, in the borough of Friedrichshain in former East Berlin. It was conceived at a time of improving relations between East Germany and Poland as a monument to the cooperation