My name is Mieke Kirkels. Welcome to my website.
After an early retirement I moved from the city of Rotterdam to the municipality of Margraten. In 2008 started a National oral history project in The Netherlands: ‘Heritage of WWII – Eyewitness stories. Together with the local heritage foundation I started the project Fields of Margraten related to the American cemetery in the village. I learned by the local farmers, that from September 1944 on, African American soldiers had buried 20.000 American soldiers on their acres.
From that time on I worked as an oral historian and project manager to give attention to the fact that African American soldiers helped to liberate The Netherlands – about 80 years ago. Till then, in Dutch history books nor in archives anything could be found about them, nor about the fact that the US Army was segregated during WW
It was only by serendipity that I met an African American veteran in 2009 who was not amused to hear this from me and said to me:
“PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW”
Till end of 2024 that was an obligation that kept me writing about what I call Black Liberators.
Read more on the page “About me“.
