First balance: face given to 2,227 soldiers
Three weeks after the project The Faces of Margraten was announced there has been a first count of the number of available personal photos since the launch of the project. The project started off with 1,989 photos. In the past three weeks, however, 238 new photos were submitted by adopters, relatives, veterans, and researches. This means that as of this moment, a face has been given to 2,227 American soldiers who have been either buried in or memorialized on the American War Cemetery and Memorial in Margraten, the Netherlands.
In 2014, a year in which the Netherlands and other parts of Western Europe celebrate and commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation by allied forces, the Stichting Verenigde Adoptanten Amerikaanse Oorlogsgraven (Foundation United Adopters American War Graves) makes an attempt to collect as many photos as possible of the 10,023 American soldiers who have been either buried or memorialized in Margraten, the Netherlands. Many of the soldiers buried or memorialized there were killed during Operation Market Garden in September 1944 or during the allied push into Nazi-Germany. Through the project The Faces of Margraten, the foundation will bring a unique tribute to these soldiers, who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of others.
In the upcoming months, the foundation will in a joint effort with the adopters of the graves, the soldiers' relatives, veterans, and others attempt collect as many of the personal photos of these 10,023 American soldiers as possible. The foundation encourages everyone who has one or multiple photos to submit them through the website www.thefacesofmargraten.com. During a commemorative weekend in the final quarter of 2014 the photos will be put at their graves and in front of their names on the Walls of the Missing on the Margraten Cemetery. In this way, the American liberators will finally be given a face 70 years after the end of the war.
The project The Faces of Margraten is initiated by the Stichting Verenigde Adoptanten Amerikaanse Oorlogsgraven, a Dutch non-profit organization that consists of the Dutch and Belgian adopters of American war graves on American War Cemeteries in the Netherlands and Belgium. In particular, the foundation conducts research to the men and women buried there. Information and photos found are stored in the online-accessible Fields of Honor - Database of the foundation. The foundation does not maintain any of the "Adopt-A-Grave" programs that exist for various overseas American cemeteries. In case of the Margraten Cemetery, this program is maintained by the Stichting Adoptie Graven Amerikaanse Begraafplaats Margraten (Foundation Adoption Graves American Cemetery Margraten).
