Posted on 04/09/2016 12:20:20 PM PDT by Ready4Freddy
MARGRATEN, Netherlands — They haven't forgotten. For 70 years, the Dutch have come to a verdant U.S. cemetery outside this small village to care for the graves of Americans killed in World War II.
On Sunday, they came again, bearing Memorial Day bouquets for men and women they never knew, but whose 8,300 headstones the people of the Netherlands have adopted as their own.
For the American relatives of the fallen, it was an outpouring of gratitude almost as stunning as the rows of white marble crosses and Jewish Stars of David at the Netherlands American Cemetery. Each grave has been adopted by a Dutch or, in some cases, Belgian or German family, as well as local schools, companies and military organizations. More than 100 people are on a waiting list to become caretakers.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Let islam into the majority and know evil, death and misery.
Stop islam now, before it’s too late.
My mom’s first husband is buried there. Killed two weeks before the end of the war...
I have visited many of the Allied war cemeteries in Europe, from both WW1 and WW2. I will do so again this spring. It is a touching experience. What has made it even more so in recent years is the thought of how these brave, selfless people gave their lives for something bigger and special, and how today’s generation seems to be throwing it all away.
Dutch families have tended the graves in the Netherlands American Cemetery since the end of WWII, multiple generations gladly and reverently taking on the responsibility as their time comes.
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Another entry in the “heartwarming military cemetery stories” genre, found the link at the WaPo article I just posted about the WWII Vet’s DC neighbors who arranged for him to be buried at Arlington.
“Heartwarming” doesn’t come close; I’m not even sure that ‘tear-jerking’ does.
Taking the liberty to repost this from last year, and to ping all who have responded to the DC Vet’s article.
The Tears never stop.
Thank you. Sis picked up my dads military memorabilia this week. She has the storage room and six children who will treasure it. They have already Been looking into some recently de classified material and into the medals on his jacket. Never one to boast His grandchildren are very proud of him.
Stop Islam in Europe so that our American soldiers and their allies will not have died in vain. The Dutch are finally starting to get it about Muslim invaders.
Look what muzzie savages are doing to British graves in Libya. After they desecrated WII Italian graves. Savages!
I was there in April 1989... An absolutely beautiful resting place for the thousands of America’s finest who have their all there.
Touching story and silent movie.
I’m glad to learn that because many Europeans have forgotten.
The Dutch have never forgotten us [for freeing them from the Nazis]...
Well, how do you do, young Willie McBride
Do you mind if I sit down here by your graveside,
and rest for awhile in the warm summer sun
I've been walkin' all day, and I'm nearly done.
I can see by your gravestone you were only nineteen
when you joined the great fallen in 1916,
I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean,
Or Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?
Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the pipes lowly,
did they play the death march as they lowered you down?
Did the band play "The Last Post" in chorus,
did the pipes play The Flowers of the Forest?
In September, 2014, I attended the 70th Annual Liberation Concert at Margraten, Holland. I arrived early to take pictures. It was very foggy.
I had the pleasure of meeting two “adopters.” Couldn’t stop crying. They must have thought I was a little nuts. Actually, the gentleman is the nephew of the original adopter of Claude Stackpole’s grave. Graves are handed down in families.
I have visited British and German cemeteries in France and Belgium. None are as carefully manicured or as beautifully maintained as the American cemeteries.
Photos here: https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipM_uZeSe47rULTbCtdASnZtnw0lZB4KtDNXXenD
To learn all about the gratitude of the Dutch, read “The Margraten Boys: How a European Village Kept America’s Liberators Alive” by P. Schrijvers. It’s available on Amazon.
If there are any Freepers in Holland...
THANK YOU
In 1991 I was TDY in a small town in The Netherlands that, in WWII, was right in the middle of Operation Market Garden.
In the evenings I could not buy my own beer. Dutch folk of all ages kept my glass full.
I was amazed.
To travel thousands of miles, to face the withering gunfire and artillery of a dangerous foe, to place their lives on the line to free peoples they never met nor ever thought of before those days of battle.
Such men.
Where did such men come from?
I speak for myself when I saw that I am in awe.
No greater love has a man than to lay down his life for a friend....or, to lay down his life for a stranger who cries out for freedom from tyranny.
Such men.
God bless them and God bless the keepers of the flames of freedom in the Netherlands and most particularly in Margraten.
My mother’s cousin, Ernst Fichtl, known to the family as Junior, is buried at Margraten. He was killed a month before the end of the war.
My mother’s family lived on Long Island but had deep German roots, spoke German at home, and Junior’s father, Ernie, told his son he was rooting for Germany to win in Europe. Junior replied “Dad, I’m going to make you eat those words...”
Ironically, Junior was killed in Germany, his tank pushing south towards Berlin, and his father was never the same again, and went totally blind with cataracts. So very sad. RIP Ernst Fichtl.
408,000 of which the Army Air Corp (Air Force) accounted for 80,000 ...
I get a 404 message at the link
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