The Faces of Margraten to return May 1-5, 2016
The Faces of Margraten tribute will return at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten from May 1-5 this year. The Stichting Verenigde Adoptanten Amerikaanse Oorlogsgraven (Foundation United Adopters American Adopters) again calls for photos of the U.S. soldiers who have been either buried or memorialized in Margraten. Since the first edition of the tribute in 2015, over 450 additional photos have already been found.
During The Faces of Margraten tribute, faces are put to the 10,023 U.S. soldiers who have been either buried or memorialized in Margraten by decorating their graves or names on the Walls of the Missing with a personal photo. During the first edition of the tribute in 2015, about 3,300 photos were on display. For the first time since the end of World War II, the 25,000 visitors were able to look straight into the eyes of the American liberators.
New photos of the soldiers continue to be found. For example, adopters of the graves have been inspired by the first edition of this tribute and have started to search in the U.S. for a photo of the soldiers whose grave they have adopted. The Krick family is among them. They contacted the Portland Press Herald in Maine in their quest for the family and a photo of Pfc Linton Lowell. They did so successfully. Lowell will be one of the over 400 soldiers to whose face we can put a name this upcoming May.
Photos can be submitted to the tribute in a variety of ways. Photos can be submitted through The Faces of Margraten website at www.thefacesofmargraten.com or by sending them This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Physical copies of photos can be mailed to Stichting Verenigde Adoptanten Amerikaanse Oorlogsgraven, Loonsevaert 21, 5171 LL Kaatsheuvel, the Netherlands.
The Rabobank Centraal Zuid-Limburg, the Stichting Elisabeth Strouven, the Stichting Kanunnik Salden Nieuwenhof, and the U.S. Embassy in The Hague will support the upcoming edition of the tribute. Those who would like to support the tribute are encouraged to make a donation through the tribute’s website. In the months to come the foundation will release more information on the tribute.
The Faces of Margraten is an initiative of the Stichting Verenigde Adoptanten Amerikaanse Oorlogsgraven, a Dutch non-profit organization that is run by Belgian and Dutch adopters of American war graves in Belgium and the Netherlands. The foundation has committed itself to giving a face to all the soldiers buried and memorialized there and in that way to keeping alive the memory to these soldiers. The foundation does not maintain any of the "Adopt-A-Grave" programs for the cemeteries.
