Adopting American war graves in Margraten

The Stichting Adoptie Graven Amerikaanse Begraafplaats Margraten (Adopting Graves American Cemetery Margraten Foundation) allocates graves for adoption, instructs and stimulates adopters and actualises the adoption register. The board establishes the contact between adopter and American next of kin. Most adopters come from Limburg, but also people from the other parts of the Netherlands, from Belgium, Italy and even from Germany have adopted graves. There are also many schools and organisations among the adopters. There is communication with the American Battle Monuments commission (ABMC) in Paris and the Embassy of the United States of America in The Hague.

On September 12th 1944, the first allied troops arrived in the Netherlands. The 9th Army settled down in the south of Limburg, with the headquarters in Maastricht. The commander of the 9th Army, General Simpson, for his advance to Berlin, gave the command to establish a cemetery in Margraten. The first victim was buried in November 1944. In 1945 the first grave was adopted by a resident of Margraten, Jef van Laar. An American captain asked him to visit the grave of his friend who had been killed, and send photographs of it to his parents in America. He decided to adopt this grave. Soon more requests for information and photographs arrived from America and this led to an appeal in the regional newspaper to adopt graves. During Memorial Day 1945 all 18,000 graves were provided with flowers. In the following years all the soldiers were reburied. 10,000 of them were repatriated. The remaining 8301 remained adopted and as of that moment, annually commemorated and provided with flowers. In 2002 the current Adoption Graves American Cemetery Foundation was established and the adoption register, which consisted of an index card box, was digitalised and actualised. As a result of the 100% adoption level, the 1722 names in the Walls of Missing Persons were made available for adoption as well. As of 2015 all 10,023 American soldiers have been adopted and there is a waiting list of more than 300 persons. Many parents have passed on the adoption to their children and grandchildren, which makes that also many young people can be found among the adopters. Searching and maintaining contact with American families has become much simpler with social media. Many adopters also dug into the history of the Second World War in general and of American soldiers in particular. This has led to several books, documentaries and films.