From farmland to soldiers cemetery
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In November 1944 on the Plateau of Margraten, a beginning was made with the burials of more than twenty-thousand victims of the Second World War. Most of them were Americans, but also Germans, Russians, Italians and many other nationalities. Over twenty hectares of farmland changed into a huge soldiers cemetery within a very short time. This book recounts what the construction of the cemetery meant to the local population, to the landowners, to the people who saw the transports of the dead pass by and to those who had to bury these thousands, for the most part young men.
The book contains 41 written portraits, little biographies of ordinary, but sometimes special people. These are the memories of men and women, white and black, from townspeople to officers and soldiers from the United States. Even a former German prisoner of war tells his story. They all have one thing in common: Their memories of that time, more than sixty-five years ago. Memories that still haunt them and which were recorded in the Oral History Akkers van Margraten (Fields of Margraten).
Never before has a comprehensive picture been sketched of what the construction of the American cemetery meant to the local population and those who worked there.
Authors Jo Purnot and Mieke Kirkels, together with Frans Roebroeks, Eugenie Jansen and Albert Elings formed the project team Akkers van Margraten (Fields of Margraten). They compiled all these stories and memories in 2008 and 2009 and saw to it that these were recorded in this book as well as in the documentary film Akkers van Margraten (Fields of Margraten).
The foreword of the book is by minister Maxime Verhagen.
Eyewitness accounts of the construction of the American cemetery in Margraten.
192 pages, included many original pictures and maps. .
Adr. Heinen Uitgevers, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, commissioned by Stichting Akkers van Margraten. Prijs € 19,95 excl. postage
Auteurs: Jo Purnot, Mieke Kirkels en Frans Roebroeks (red.)
Design: Marc Verbeek, Aldus projecten. Maps: Romke Hameleers.
ISBN 9789086801510 English edition