In the past week we learned that Louis de Cazenave, France’s second last surviving World War I veteran passed away on Sunday, January 20th.

Now we learn that Germany’s last World War I veteran predeceased France’s second last veteran by nearly 20 days. The BBC reports in Germany’s ‘last’ WWI veteran dies that Erich Kaestner died January 1st.

I just found it to be an interesting juxtaposition.

Wikipedia has an interesting page on the deaths of World War I veterans. It indicates that the last German survivor also predeceased the second last remaining Polish veteran, Stanisław Wycech who died on January 12th. Other surviving veterans are listed here.

In any event, may they all rest in peace.