In November 1944, the burial of more than twenty thousand victims of the Second World War began on the Margraten Plateau.
They were mainly Americans, but there were also Germans, Russians, Italians and many other nationalities. More than twenty hectares of agricultural farmland was transformed into a large military cemetery in a very short time. What the construction of the cemetery meant for local residents, for landowners, for people who saw the death transports passing by every day, and for those who had to bury the remains of those thousands of mostly young men, can be read in this book.
It contains 41 written portraits, short biographies of ordinary, but sometimes also special people. They are the memories of men and women, white and Black, from villagers to officers, and of soldiers from the US. Even a former German prisoner of war has his say. They all have one thing in common: their memories of that time, more than sixty-five years ago. Memories that have never left them. Never before has a comprehensive picture been drawn of the significance of the construction of the American cemetery for the residents and for those who worked there. The authors Jo Purnot and Mieke Kirkels formed the project team Akkers van Margraten [Fields of Margraten] together with Frans Roebroeks, Eugenie Jansen and Albert Elings. In 2008 and 2009 they collected all these stories and memories and made sure that they were recorded in both this book and in the documentary film ‘Akkers van Margraten’.
Author: Mieke Kirkels and J.H.M.G. Purnot ISBN/EAN: 9789086801466