memorial day Margraten 24 may 2015

short impression.
Son visits grave of father for first time and meets adopters of grave.



http://www.telegraaf.nl/tv/nieuws/binnenland/24078448/__Memorial_Day_in_Margraten__.html

(cant skip 18 seconds of $#%@%$@ advertisements)

 

I can't get it at all...sorry

 

Worked for me although that commercial is tough on DSL!!

 

Here is a story on Margraten and how the Dutch have cared for the US soldiers buried here. Just an amazing thing the Dutch have done! A caretaker for each of the American graves in there town with a waitlist of 100! This is a great way to make sure the we never forget! This care taking has passed down some families for generations.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/americans-gave-their-lives-to-defeat-the-nazis-the-dutch-have-never-forgotten/2015/05/24/92dddab4-fa79-11e4-9ef4-1bb7ce3b3fb7_story.html

 

Yes. Ruud, who started this thread, is one of those fine people that have adopted graves.

 

Thanks Incessant, a good story written with respect. Thank you so much for posting this story from an American point of view. Good to hear sometimes that the news of a small country like Holland (16 milion people) reaches the USA

There is a Duch band which made a song about the American cemetery. It's called 'Mergroate" (Margraten).
The song is all about the question : would i do the same for you ?
Please use this link to hear the song (sung in local dialect):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSEiRNm9VIk

The translation of the dialect lyrics :

Margraten
Lyrics & Music: Martin Diederen & Guido Frissen
1
In the morning when the fog recedes, out of that cloud thousands of white crosses
slowly emerge.
A vast field of honor, and every name is that of a hero,
on every cross a black ravenperches.
(chorus)
Was it worth it, forfeiting one’s life
For a small country, the existence of which you didn’t even know.
Was it worth it, fighting for other people here
When your mother was so much against your going.
When I’m looking at those endless rows of white crosses
Only now do I realize what you did for Limburg
For to expel the enemy you had to jeopardize your life
And could not return to America

Every cross is a monument for some foreign bloke
Who gave his life for us
Most of them barely twenty years of age, ready to help our Limburg
“The hell on wheels”, that nobody could stop.
(bridge)
For sixty years we have been free, and all that time they have been here
They gave there all
And in the early morning sun, here lies “private Washington”
I wonder, would I do the same for you?
(Translated by:
Willem van den Berge)

 

@Kodiak: euh, thanks for the credits but all graves were already adopted so no go for me about the graves.
I might give it a try at Henri Chapell in Belgium.

 

Large database about graves in Margraten and Henri Chapel:

http://www.fieldsofhonor-database.com/index.php/margraten