American Military Cemetery Margraten

American Military Cemetery, Rijksweg Margraten

The American Military Cemetery reminds the inhabitants of Margraten of 8,301 American soldiers who died in the battle against the occupying forces during the Second World War.

Margraten was liberated on September 13, 1944 by units of the 30th Infantry Division of the First American Army during the advance to the Roer in the Ruhr area in Germany. On November 10, 1944, the Ninth U.S. Army inaugurated the war cemetery for American soldiers who had died in Germany. Out of respect and gratitude, the Dutch government took ownership of the land and ceded it in perpetual use.

The 8,301 soldiers killed came from all states of North America, the District of Columbia, England, Canada and Mexico. Of the 106 unknowns, the remains could never be identified with absolute certainty. About 43% of the soldiers who were temporarily buried here and in other cemeteries in the area now have their resting place at Margraten. Most of them gave their lives during the airborne and ground operations to liberate the east of the Netherlands, during the advance through Germany over the Roer and Rhine and during the air war over these regions. In no less than forty cases, two brothers were buried next to each other.

At the commemoration of the fallen, General Eisenhouwer uttered the following words, which can be read at the cemetery in Margraten: 'Here we and all who shall hereafter live in freedom will be reminded that to these men and their comrades we owe a debt to be paid with grateful remembrance of their sacrifice and with the high resolveer that the cause for which they died shall live.'

Disclosure
The cemetery was dedicated on July 7, 1960, in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Juliana, His Royal Highness Prince Bernhard and U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The field of honor was designed by the Boston-based firm of Sheply, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbot and the landscape architects of the firm of Clarke, Rapuano and Halleran of New York. The memorial was designed by Joseph Kislewski of New York. The sculpture group was cast by Battaglia in Milan.

The cemetery is the responsibility of the American Battle Monuments Commission.

Eijsden-Margraten