Joan Collins
De adoptie van oorlogsgraven heeft vele Amerikaanse en Nederlandse families en individuen met elkaar in contact gebracht die elkaar anders nooit gekend zouden hebben. Afstanden tussen beide landen worden overbrugd. Dit was ook de ervaring van Joan Collins, burgemeester van het plaatsje Woodridge in de staat New York.
I received an e-mail from my friend Jodi Novogrodsky Goodman last month with a request from Cathy Dawkins looking for info on a soldier from Woodridge. As I delved into this I found that there is a Facebook group entitled Sullivan County Genealogy. A man by the name of John Wagemans posted a request on this page looking for information on Pvt. Daniel H. Green, killed in action in Germany on December 12, 1944.
The moment I saw the name I answered Cathy and Mr. Wagemans with all the info I had on Daniel and included a photo of the plaque that is hanging in the Village Hall with Danny's picture and the circumstances of his death.
The kicker is that Mr. Wagemans lives in The Netherlands. The reason he was researching Danny is that he and his family adopted Danny's name on the Wall of the Missing at the Netherlands American Cemetery. There are 8,301 graves at the cemetery plus a wall with the names of missing service men. All of the graves and most of the names on the wall have been adopted by members of the community and just a few names remain. John advised us it was his "mission" to obtain information on his "adopted hero" prior to Memorial Day 2015. He and his family wanted to be able to put a face to the name.
When I looked at the Facebook page, there were many postings from local people who jumped in to give John information and direction. In the matter of two days, John had more than he hoped for as well as the gratitude of many Americans. They let him know how much they appreciated what he and his countrymen were doing and many sent their blessings.
Also posted were old news articles, census records from the 1930s and 1940s mentioning Danny and his family, as well as a record of his death from the National Jewish Welfare Board Bureau of War Records. We were also surprised with something John sent back for us. He had all the information he collected on Daniel transferred to the Netherlands American Cemetery Margraten &
the American Battle Monuments Commission database. Daniel H. Green from Woodridge, thanks to John Wagemans in the Netherlands, is no longer a "faceless hero" and will never be forgotten. We also put John in touch with Danny's nephew, Daniel Herbst, son of Danny's sister Clara Green Herbst, which meant so much to both of them. Danny died in Linnich, Germany, which is an hour from where John lives and he plans to make a visit soon.
I did not realize how many American service members are buried far from home in strange countries where they gave their lives fighting not only for our freedoms, but for those of our neighbors.
I began to do more research and discovered a nice little twist. Also buried at the Netherlands American Cemetery is Major General Maurice Rose, the son and grandson of rabbis from Poland
and at the time, the highest ranking Jewish man in the United States Army, and one of the highest ranking service men killed during WWII. He was shot and killed by a German soldier on March 30 1945 in Paderborn, Germany.
Many years ago a street in Woodridge was named after him, Maurice Rose Street and it is the road where our shul is located. John sent me photos of his grave.
Small world or what?
