Americans gave their lives to defeat the Nazis. The Dutch have never forgotten.

 Much appreciation for this article goes to the milblog Blackfive and their post,  Never Forgotten

WaPo

 

"They haven’t forgotten. For 70 years, the Dutch have come to a verdant U.S. cemetery outside this small village to care for the graves of Americans killed in World War II.

"On Sunday, they came again, bearing
Memorial Day bouquets for men and women they never knew, but whose 8,300 headstones the people of the Netherlands have adopted as their own.

"For the American relatives of the fallen, it was an outpouring of gratitude almost as stunning as the rows of white marble crosses and Jewish Stars of David at the Netherlands American Cemetery. Each grave has been adopted by a Dutch or, in some cases, Belgian or German family, as well as local schools, companies and military organizations. More than 100 people are on a waiting list to become caretakers." . . .

.....
. . . "Roebroeks’s 84-year-old mother, Gerda Roebroeks-Nelissen, keeps a photo of one American soldier, Ohioan Henry Wolf, on a mantelpiece by a lit candle. Wolf and a few other soldiers stayed with her family after the liberation, when she was 13 years old.

“ 'For my father, Henry was like a child of his,” she remembered.

"He was devastated after Wolf was killed in Germany on June 11, 1945. The private’s body was brought back to Margraten, where he was buried in Plot K, Row 2, Grave 22. Roebroeks-Nelissen’s family has cared for Wolf’s grave ever since." . . .

Some silent footage of the 1945 Memorial Day events.

Please read all of this moving article.

 Now, many Dutch adopters can find a soldier’s next-of-kin through Ancestory.com. In the United States, relatives of soldiers seeking their Dutch adopters often contact the American World War II Orphans Network, which organizes periodic trips to the cemetery.

 The Drill Sergeant posted these thoughts:   "One of the saddest sights I ever saw was near Arnhem, while touring Market Garden Locations in the late '70's.

"West of town there is a British Army cemetery. Probably on the DZ's. "A little piece of England" as the story goes. Unlike the beautiful golf course lawns of the American locations, this was like a UK country Church cemetery, down to the black wrought iron fence and the individualized headstones with inscription by the families.all good...

"Next to it was the cemetery of the 1st Polish Para Brigade. Run down and forgotten. For those who don't know, there were London Poles and Moscow Poles and the Red Army installed Moscow Poles in Warsaw. Any London Poles foolish enough to return after the war went to the Gulag, in a later day Katyn Forest. And of course, the Polish families could not visit the West.

"Brave Men, who died fighting Nazi's, but who ended up on the wrong side of the cold war."