Local couple visits Margraten Cemetery; recounts visit

In an article published in June, it was reported that proclamations from Martha Sauerbrey, Tioga County Legislature and Fred Ashkar, New York State Senator, would be presented to Erwin Flohr of the Netherlands, who cares for six graves of Tioga County World War II fallen heroes buried in American Cemeteries. 

In the article, it was also announced that John and Carole Schubert would travel to meet Erwin, and present these proclamations while on the World War II Museum “Easy Company Tour”.  

Upon their return from the visit, Carole Schubert gave the following account.

Carole and John Schubert visit Margraten

Meeting Erwin, his wife Angela, and two sons Quinten and Luke, was the highlight of our trip.  

Neither John nor I speak a word of Dutch, and Dutch is the official language of the Netherlands, spoken by almost all citizens. Ninety to 93 percent of the total population also speaks English, allowing us to communicate instantly.  

Quinten and Luke could have been American teenagers with their cell phones and spinners to occupy them while the adults talked. Mostly we compared living in Holland to the United States.  

A statistic widely thrown out about Holland is that there are 1.3 bicycles per person. One sees them everywhere; it seems like there are more bicycle racks than parking spaces. Still it was a surprise that Angela commutes to work on her bike, and the boys ride bikes to school.  

We enjoyed dinner at a popular local Italian restaurant, after which we returned to our hotel to present the proclamations and continue our conversation.  

Erwin was honored to receive the recognition from Tioga County, and I could tell his family was proud for him.  

Erwin gave us instructions to locate the four Tioga County graves the next day at the Margraten Cemetery.  When we entered Margraten Cemetery, we saw rows, endless rows of white marble crosses and stars of David – 8,301 fallen American heroes. Another 1,722 names are listed on the Walls of the Missing. We located the graves and left a white rose on each Tioga County grave at Margraten. 

We also talked about a new program, “The Faces of Margraten”, that puts a face (picture) on every headstone at the cemetery. Erwin has a picture of Glenn Warner, from Tioga County, and we found a picture of James La Due, from Barton, buried at Henri-Chappelle American Cemetery in Belgium.  

We are helping Erwin look for the other four – three at Margraten and one at Henri-Chappelle American Cemetery.   

“The Faces of Margraten” hopes to make a unique tribute to the men and women buried there by the personalization and by learning more about them. Where did they come from and what did their lives look like prior to World War II? The goal is 10,023 photographs.  

The Dutch have never forgotten that Americans gave their lives to liberate them after four years of Nazi oppression – the hunger, the fear of death, the forced labor, and more atrocities. The grave adoption process aims to pass along the legacy of the American sacrifice to the youngest generation so that it is never forgotten.

It is evident that Erwin and his family are committed to the “Adopt a Grave” program. His oldest son Mark, who we did not meet, has assured his father that he will carry on the family tradition. Meantime Erwin is eager to learn more about the individuals, especially the pictures, but has limited ability to research and contact Tioga county people. We can help.

For the first memorial event of the program, in 2015, and 70 years after the end of World War II, the organizing foundation, with the support of grave adopters and relatives, collected 3,300 photos. The latest total from 2016 is 4,800.  

With your help, we will be able to give the other four Tioga fallen heroes a face before the next memorial event in 2018.

The American cemetery in the town of Eijsden-Margraten is one of the largest cemeteries in the world and the only American cemetery in the Netherlands.

Erwin and his family are special to us because he cares for our fallen heroes, four at Margraten. The remaining graves at Margraten have been adopted, as well as names inscribed on the wall of the missing.  

As Americans, we are honored that so many Dutch citizens have volunteered and committed to care for these graves. Adopters are expected to visit the graves or wall several times a year, lay flowers periodically especially on Memorial Day. They are encouraged to contact the families and follow their wishes as far as future contact, pictures, and other details about the fallen relative buried overseas.  

Erwin and his family also adopted two Tioga graves at Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, nearby in Belgium. 

The adoption program started in Margraten in 1944. Around 2005 it became possible to adopt graves at the American cemetery in Henri-Chapelle, Neuville-en-Condroz (both Belgium) and in Normandy (OMAHA-Beach). Thousands of graves have been adopted at all these cemeteries. Many Americans remain unaware of this.

Throughout our trip visits to museums, cemeteries, memorials, and battle sites, it became evident that Nazi-occupied Europe does not want to forget what the fallen heroes and American veterans did for their freedom and liberty – they paid the ultimate sacrifice. With each commemorative ceremony or visit to a grave, they are expressing their gratitude to the fallen heroes, the injured, and the veterans who returned home. They are all heroes to the European people liberated from Nazi tyranny.  

My pre-trip knowledge of D-Day was that of a momentous battle in World War II, often referred to as the turning point on the European front. My post-trip knowledge is that the Normandy invasion (D-Day) was the beginning of the liberation of Europe from the tyranny and horror of Hitler’s Nazism.  

History of Margraten Cemetery 

The unique and amazing continuity of the Margraten grave adoption program may be found in its history. The first burial at Margraten took place on Nov. 10, 1944. A battlefield cemetery was established in October 1944 under the leadership of Joseph Shomon of the 611th Graves Registration Company.

During the war, expediency demanded all nationalities were buried there. The generous government of the Netherlands granted its free use as a permanent burial ground in perpetuity without charge or taxation. 

Between late 1944 and spring 1945, up to 500 bodies arrived each day, so many that the mayor went door to door asking villagers for help with the digging. Unofficially, this may have been the beginning of the “Adopt a Grave” program.

Officially, the adoption program was the brainchild of the Margraten town clerk and a local pastor. Two other American cemeteries abroad began adoption programs in 2007, both in Belgium, but Margraten is the only one where every grave has a volunteer caretaker and a waiting list.

The day before the cemetery’s first Memorial Day commemoration (30 May 1945) — trucks from the 611th collected flowers from 60 different Dutch villages. Nearly 200 Dutch men, women, and children spent all night arranging flowers and wreaths by the dirt-covered graves, bearing makeshift wooden crosses and Stars of David. By 8 a.m., the road leading into Margraten was jammed with Dutch people traveling by foot, bicycle, horseback, and by carriage and car. At the second Memorial Day one year later, all 18,764 graves had been adopted.  

Over the next two years, about 17,740 American soldiers would be buried here, though the number of graves would shrink as thousands of families asked for their loved ones’ remains to be sent home. The families were given the opportunity to repatriate their relative to the U.S. or to be reburied in a newly constructed permanent American Cemetery at Margraten. About half of Americans were repatriated and reburied in the U.S.; the rest remained in Margraten. The Americans buried elsewhere in the Netherlands, on churchyards and temporary military cemeteries were moved to the new Margraten American Cemetery.

Today there are 8,301 Headstones, 106 of which are unknown, and 1,722 names on a Memorial Wall for those missing in action, whose remains have not been found or identified in over 70 years. For generations, local families, grateful for the sacrifice of their liberators from Nazi occupation, have cared for not only the graves, but for the memories of over 10,000 U.S. soldiers in the cemetery of Margraten in the Netherlands.

Erwin Flohr reaction to visit with John and Carole Schubert

If you happen to meet Senator Fred Akshar, again please give him a big thank you from me. I really appreciate the proclamation. The same goes for Martha Sauerbrey. That they took the time to do this for me means a lot to me. The meeting with John and Carole Schubert was great. It was a day later than planned because of traffic problems the other day. My wife, our two youngest sons and me, met up with them at the hotel and talked there for a while about their trip so far.

Then we walked to an Italian restaurant where we had some nice Italian food and where John told me about Tioga County and about the sort of life most of the Tioga soldiers have had before going to war.

Also stories were told about you, putting a lot of time in to veterans. Then stories of Owego passed, New York State, cities in the area and much more. Very interesting stories. The time flied and we already finished dessert in the meantime.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel where John handed me the Proclamation by Senator Fred Akshar and the Proclamation of Legislature Martha Sauerbrey. I was really honored to receive those and I am very proud to have these.

Also, we were treated with John and Carole’s homemade maple syrup. John and I could have kept talking all evening and night. But it was getting quite late and it was time to say goodbye. At these moments you wish that there were more time.

Meeting John and Carole Schubert, representing Tioga County was a wonderful experience for my family and I. One we will never forget. We really hope to meet them again and everyone else in Tioga County who we know or would like to know me someday, when we have the chance to make the trip there.

Thanks and best regards – Erwin Flohr