For Obama, Putin, Merkel: WWI is family history

FILE - In this May 28, 2014 file photo, curator Andreas Mix, right, explains a map of alliances of the European powers prior to World War I to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, second left, during a World War I exhibition at the Historical Museum in Berlin. More than 65 million men were mobilized to fight in World War I, including grandfathers and relatives of many of today’s heads of state and government. On Thursday, June 26, 2014, in the Belgian city of Ypres near the blood-drenched battlefields of Flanders, leaders of the 28 member states of the European Union will gather to mark the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the conflict that wreaked great death and destruction on their continent. (AP Photo/Thomas Peter, Pool) FILE - In this May 28, 2014 file photo, curator Andreas Mix, right, explains a map of alliances of the European powers prior to World War I to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, second left, during a World War I exhibition at the Historical Museum in Berlin. More than 65 million men were mobilized to fight in World War I, including grandfathers and relatives of many of today’s heads of state and government. On Thursday, June 26, 2014, in the Belgian city of Ypres near the blood-drenched battlefields of Flanders, leaders of the 28 member states of the European Union will gather to mark the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the conflict that wreaked great death and destruction on their continent. (AP Photo/Thomas Peter, Pool)

By Associated Press June 25, 2014 6 min read

BRUSSELS (AP) – It’s not just ordinary people whose ancestors fought in World War I.

It’s a shared chapter in the genealogies of President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin. For British Prime Minister David Cameron, it evokes proud family memories of valor tempered by sorrow. For German Chancellor Angela Merkel, it involves a grandparent whose actions are tinged with mystery.

On Thursday, in the Belgian city of Ypres near the once-blood drenched battlefields of Flanders, the leaders of the European Union’s 28 nations will mark the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the conflict that wreaked death and destruction across their continent.

For some of the men and women who will be present, the Great War is not the stuff of distant history. It is the story of their own families, just two generations removed.

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