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Margraten, the location of the American cemetery
In November 1944
A number of English-speaking men visited the town hall of Margraten in their search for a suitable plot of land for a cemetery.
The company in charge of the burials of the deceased Americans was accommodated in Margraten.
Eighteen months later, more than 20,000 bodies were buried.
According to the American eyewitnesses, the local population was closely involved in the construction of the cemetery. Proof of this were the many graves that were adopted and the great many visitors attending the first Memorial Day in 1945.

After the war, some 11,000 bodies of American soldiers were exhumed and shipped to the US at the request of the next of kin. Once again the population of Margraten and those living close by were called upon to assist with the reburying of the US soldiers. Only after that could the layout of the cemetery begin as it is known now.

July 7, 1960
The cemetery was officially opened.

The American cemetery comprised 8,301 graves, in which 8,302 deceased were buried (one of the graves contains two bodies)
For a chronological overview, click here


the temporary graves at memorial day


attempts to built a road to the burial site under severe circumstances 1944


the first graves with temporary wooden crosses


some pictures of the larger collection off the foundation

 

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 on video in the Oral History Akkers van Margraten (Fields of Margraten)Meer.. 

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