Margraten.org

Margraten.org is a website with a wealth of information about one of the largest American military cemeteries on the European continent. It is generally known under the name of ‘Margraten’.

This website brings together various projects and initiatives regarding this cemetery. A number of these projects were merged in 2011 into the “Memorial Center Akkers van Margraten Foundation”. This foundation took the initiative to create this website.

The foundation wants to keep the cemetery’s history and memory alive, so it pays special attention to the human stories behind the cemetery – both the stories of the American soldiers who died and those of eye witnesses from Margraten and its surrounds, who saw the creation of the cemetery and many of whom adopted a grave.

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Do you have information about one or more of the fallen servicemen buried in Margraten? If so, please let us know.

Margraten Memorial

Virtual Monument

Fields of Margraten

Return to Margraten. A Soldier’s story

‘Return to Margraten. A Soldier’s story’ is a homage to Jefferson Wiggins, one of the former Afro-American gravediggers of Margraten. After interviewing hem several times, Mieke Kirkels wrote a book about his memories of the war, his time in Margraten and his fight against racial segregation.
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The faces of Margraten

The project ‘The faces of Margraten’ tries it utmost to give as much of the soldiers of Margraten as possible a face by collecting photographs of the men and women who are buried and remembered in Margraten. Anyone who has photo of a soldier can submit them.
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Het kogelgat van St. Gerlach

The documentary ‘Het kogelgat van St. Gerlach’ tells the story of a mysterious bullet hole which 70 years after WWII still can be found in a mirror Chateau St. Gerlach.
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Our Soldier

The documentary ‘Our Soldier’ tells the story of the adoption of graves of the cemetery in Margraten from 1945 until now. As a result of telling two adoption-stories a cross is given a face, and it is made clear what adoption means for keeping alive the memory of “our soldier”.
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Foundation of the Commemoration of the American Christmas Celebration 1944

The ‘Foundation of the Commemoration of the American Christmas Celebration 1944’ remembers the special Christmaseve of 1944 in the Shark Cave, when a great number of American GI’s attended Mass in the cave. As a lasting memory they left their names on a wall in the cave.
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Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial

The cemetery is managed by the “American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC)”. After the war, the Dutch government gave the land where the cemetery is located to the United States on perpetual loan. The ABMC website contains such things as a historical sketch of the cemetery as well as a searchable database where visitors can find where in Margraten the soldiers are buried and remembered.
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The Margraten Adopt a Grave Foundation

The “Margraten American Cemetery Adopt a Grave Foundation” offers interested parties the opportunity to adopt the grave of a fallen liberator. This is a phenomenon found nowhere else in the world on this scale. The project was started at the end of the war. If you are interested in adopting a grave, please let the foundation know.
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Fields of Honor Database

Many people are conducting research into the life stories of the soldiers buried at Margraten. The Adoptiegraven.nl website helps with this research and displays the results on their site. It also offers a forum where researchers can contact each other.
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Margraten Requiem

The memory of the sacrifices that the American liberators made is kept alive in and around the Margraten region by such events as the annual performance of the Margraten Requiem by the Limburg Symphony Orchestra. This sublime outdoor concert sets the stage at the cemetery for a musical homage to the allied forces that fell during the Second World War.
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Gemeente Eijsden-Margraten

The Municipality of Eijsden-Margraten
eijsden-margraten

Toeristische informatie over de streek

Regional information for tourists
vvvzuidlimburg.nl