Margraten, the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial, is the only American military cemetery in the Netherlands. The US 30th Infantry Division liberated this site on 13 September 1944, and 8301 American military are buried here. The cemetery site has a rich historical background, lying near the famous Cologne-Boulogne highway built by the Romans and used by Caesar during his campaign in that area.
A few years ago we had the privilege to scatter our Father’s ashes there.
There are 179 Jewish American soldiers buried in the cemetery. I won’t tell the story of all of them, but I will tell the story of one of the brave men that secured my freedom. The fact that he is Jewish makes it even more remarkable. If he would have been captured there would have been no grave, he certainly would have been sent to the gas chambers and his body would be burned in the ovens.
I will also be retelling the story of Leo Lichten. Leo is one of the reasons why I kept going with my blog, or rather Leo’s nephew. Om the 14th of May, 2017 he wrote a wonderful email. At the time I was getting a lot of feedback, People telling me to stop bringing up World War II and the Holocaust. What surprised me more than anything else is that some were Jewish. However Leo’s nephew Robert wrote me the following email:
Dear Sir,
I saw your posting on Leo Lichten. He was my uncle. Thank you for honouring his memory in such a nice way. My mother is the little girl in the family portrait photograph included in your posting. She is going to be 81 years old in August. Mom is the only one left now. She was Leo’s half-sister. The older man in the photo is my grandfather, Solomon Wolf, Leo’s stepfather. The older woman of course is Leo’s mother (my grandmother), Molly Wolf/formerly Lichten. The beautiful young woman is Leo’s older sister (Mom’s older half-sister), Belle Lichten Mann. My grandfather passed away in 1966. Grandma Molly died in 1987, and Aunt Belle passed away in 2001. Leo’s biological father, Max Lichten passed away in 1984. Uncle Leo’s best friend, Paul Slater, is still alive and lives in Massachusetts. He is also a WWII combat veteran (Navy). Paul’s son is named Leo. Thank you again for taking the time to bring honour to Uncle Leo and his Comrades in arms also resting in Margraten.”
Leo’s story is at the end of this post.
Sgt Philip Abrahamson
Sgt Philip Abrahamson attended high school for 4 years and was a graduate of North High school and was employed in Brandeis store in the men’s department before he joined the National Guard in Council Bluffs, Iowa on 13 January 1941. He had been overseas with a tank destroyer unit since February 1944.
Sgt. Abrahamson was a communication chief with the 125th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, Headquarters & Service Group when he was Killed in Action near Isenbruch, Germany.
CWO Gordon Parks received an order to send a party into Isenbruch to look for enemy activity. S/Sgt Abrahamson and three others were assigned the duty. The party saw no German troops or other activity but the order was given to go down a particular road. Abrahamson told Parks that they heard that the road was mined but Parks said he had orders to have somebody go down that road and see if there was any enemy activity. So those four soldiers went down the road in their armoured car and hit a land mine. It exploded directly under Sgt Abrahamson and killed him.
One of the men that survived this incident, Louis Nicastro, did not know the full story until he asked Parks about it at a cavalry reunion, some 45 years later. Parks added that Abrahamson had told him, “Gordon, I don’t think I’m going to be going home.”
On an early autumn day in 1944, the 125th was at the border of the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. Chief Warrant Officer Gordon Parks received an order to send a party into Isenbruch, Germany, to look for enemy activity. Abrahamson and three others in an armoured car were assigned the duty. The party saw no German troops or other activity, but the higher-ups were insistent that they go down a particular road.
“Abrahamson told Officer Parks that they heard the road was mined,” Nicastro said. “Gordon Parks said he has orders to have somebody go down that road and see if there’s any enemy activity. On Oct. 3, those four soldiers go down the road and hit a land mine. It exploded directly under Sgt. Abrahamson and killed him.”
Private First Class Leo Lichten
Leo was born on 31 May 1925, in Manhattan to Max and Mollie Lichten. He grew up in Brooklyn, and was described by his best buddy Paul as, “a very noble, intelligent and courageous person.” He even saved Paul from drowning once when they were kids. The best buddy indeed.
Pfc Leo Lichten entered the service in New York City, New York on 11 August 1943. Because of his high intelligence, he was admitted to a special army training course for doctors, engineers and interpreters.
Despite his humble origins, Leo joined the prestigious Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP), in August 1943. This initiative of the US military offered the smartest young men (with an IQ of at least 120) the chance to train as engineers, doctors or interpreters. Of course in exchange for several years of service in the army.
But unfortunately for Leo and his fellow students, the army decided to stop this training program in February 1944, because there was a threat of a shortage of soldiers. 110,000 young ASTP students left university for direct participation in the war. Most of them were sent to infantry units as Private First Class, as was Leo.
Leo’s company, Company A, was ordered on 20 Nov. 1944, to attack pillboxes (small bunkers) just outside Prummern to eliminate the enemy resistance in the small German town. The weather was cold and rainy, and the ground was muddy, making the battle even more difficult than it might otherwise have been. Leo storms one of the pillboxes but is killed by machine gun fire early in the fighting.
He was laid to rest in the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial in Margraten, along with 8,300 fellow US soldiers and the names of 1,700 other who went missing in action.
The title of this post is a quote engraved in the Marble reception hall of the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial in Margraten in the Netherlands.
The cemetery was created in October 1944 under the leadership of Joseph Shomon of the 611th Graves Registration Company as the Ninth United States Army pushed into the Netherlands from France and Belgium. American casualties from the area and those that fell in Germany were buried there (as Americans could not be buried permanently in enemy territory).
A few years ago, we were allowed to scatter the ashes of our Father here.
In the past, I have written about some of the heroes buried here. This piece is about one of the heroes that dug the graves.
Jefferson Wiggins was 16 years old when he was recruited in his home town of Dothan to go to Europe with the US Army.
He grew up in a peasant home on land that his father rented from a wealthy landowner. He hardly enjoyed any education. The Ku Klux Klan ruled the area where he grew up. Once, he said, about 30 riders came to his house, threatening to kill his father. The crime: trying to sell a bale of cotton belonging to the farm’s owner to get money to feed his hungry family. The family escaped to the next county in a horse and wagon.
For Jeff, the army meant an escape, not just from a poor life without any prospects but especially from the racism he no longer wanted to endure.
Before leaving for Europe, Jeff attended military training courses in, among others, Fort Benning. He took the train to the port of New York and boarded there, along with thousands of others. While waiting weeks for his unit to board, a New York Public Library volunteer helped him improve his reading and writing.
Jeff was 18 and staff sergeant of the 960th Unit of the QMSC when he set foot in Scotland after the troubled nine-day voyage. His unit worked there, along with thousands of other African-American soldiers, in preparation for the major invasion on the European mainland, Operation Overlord, which started on June 6, 1944, D-day. African-American soldiers also landed on the beaches of Normandy, although the American media did not consciously pay attention to it. The US government did not consider that desirable.
In the autumn of 1944, the unit of the Quarter Master Service Company (QMSC), of which he was the first sergeant, was sent to the Netherlands. There he worked for weeks, day in and day out, as a grave digger at the American cemetery developed in Margraten. That was from September 1944 and immediately after the Southern part of the Netherlands was liberated. The American Army, at that time, was completely separated into black and white troops during WWII.
It was an excruciating and gruesome task It was an excruciating and gruesome task, physically and mentally, working in the vast fields filled with corpses. Some people had been dead for a few days, others for months. The bodies were mutilated and sometimes decaying. Every day trucks with new piles of corpses came to Margraten. There were no coffins, dead soldiers were put in mattress covers and buried.
At times they also buried civilians. Jeffery Wiggins later recalled.
“The first of the dead that we buried was a German girl. I remember part of her head was blown off. She had been hit by a grenade and had fifteen bullet holes in her back. According to my estimation, she had also been machine-gunned before or after a grenade attack. We transferred her from the American side of the cemetery to the ‘enemy’ section.”
“It wasn’t a hygienic job at all, and we never got completely clean. The stench hung around us for a long time when we were back in Gronsveld. It was gruesome, dirty work. Sometimes there was hot water in the school, but when there wasn’t, we heated water in our helmets, which we used as washing tubs. That’s how we washed.’
In 2009, as the guest of the Dutch government, Wiggins, then 84 and the last surviving soldier to bury the dead at Margraten, delivered the keynote address at the 65th-anniversary celebration of the liberation of the Netherlands by Allied forces during World War II. He passed away in 2013.
He wrote a book about his time during WW2, titled From Alabama to Margraten.
Dear Sir, I thank you for your services to my country.
May 4 is the designated day in the Netherlands to remember all those who died in WWII and other conflicts.
At 8PM , 2 minutes of silence will be observed across the country. A few yeas ago I saw a picture that really touched me , It was of a pizza delivery boy getting of his bike at 8 and stopped 2 minutes to remember the dead. It still brings tears to me eyes today, not out of sadness but out of joy. It is good to know that the younger generations still know the value of respect. Especially for those who died for them as they did for me.
So many have died, in concentration camps, in battle in Europe and in the pacific, resistance fighters there are just too many to name. It is a task impossible for any one person to do.
I will remember all those millions who died during WWII. They died because of some evil men wanted their ideologies spread all over the world. I say ideologies but they were really idiocrasies.
I will remember them via a few names of brave men who are buried in ‘The Netherlands American Cemetery’ in Margraten.
10,022 names are connected to the cemetery. 8301 who are buried there, the other names are of those who are remembered and whose bodies weren’t found or were returned home. There is one name there that is special to me, Pierre de Klein, my dad. He did not die in WWII, he died in 2015 but he always had wanted to be a professional soldier. He did fulfill his military service, but his mother discouraged him of becoming a full time soldier like his Father before him, his Father was killed in WWII when my dad was only 5. The management of The Netherlands American Cemetery were so kind to allow his to scatter my Father’s ashes at the Cemetery making his remains to be 8302.
Remembering.
Aldy Willie D. Technician Fourth Grade 34139177 U.S. Army World War II Netherlands American Cemetery Mississippi 10th Tank Battalion, 5th Armored Division.
Alston Tullos Private 38416283 U.S. Army World War II Netherlands American Cemetery Texas 2nd Quartermaster Battalion
Zuidema John A. Technical Sergeant 36704981 U.S. Army World War II Netherlands American Cemetery Illinois 120th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division
Youngblood Eugene P. Corporal 35600074 U.S. Army Air Forces World War II Netherlands American Cemetery Ohio 316th Fighter Control Squadron
Wright Richard D. Second Lieutenant O-808209 U.S. Army Air Forces World War II Netherlands American Cemetery Massachusetts 367th Bomber Squadron, 306th Bomber Group, Heavy
Wright Richard J. Second Lieutenant O2060633 U.S. Army Air Forces World War II Netherlands American Cemetery Michigan 78th Squadron, 435th Troop Carrier Group
Winters Clinton First Lieutenant O-751514 U.S. Army Air Forces World War II Netherlands American Cemetery Missouri 506th Fighter Squadron, 404th Fighter Group
Winton Merbell C. Technician Fifth Grade 12034147 U.S. Army World War II Netherlands American Cemetery New Jersey 309th Infantry Regiment, 78th Infantry Division
Winzey Patrick M. Staff Sergeant 32983248 U.S. Army Air Forces World War II Netherlands American Cemetery New York 615th Bomber Squadron, 401st Bomber Group, Heavy
Alexander George S. Second Lieutenant O-869037 U.S. Army Air Forces World War II Netherlands American Cemetery Texas 714th Bomber Squadron, 448th Bomber Group, Heavy
Alexander Harry N. First Lieutenant O-767721 U.S. Army Air Forces World War II Netherlands American Cemetery California 566th Bomber Squadron, 389th Bomber Group, Heavy
They gave their today for our tomorrow.
Our tomorrow was sacred to them.
They gave their today for our tomorrow..
Sacrificing their own lives for those they would never meet.
They gave their today for our tomorrow..
A tomorrow which we should cherish even more.
They gave their today for our tomorrow.
Their bravery should forever be remembered and ingrained in our hearts.
They gave their today for our tomorrow.
To those who gave their today for my tomorrow, I bow humbly and respectfully and hope I was worth your sacrifice.
The US armed service often get bad press and maybe sometimes that’s warranted. but what is often forgotten nowadays and especially in Europe, we owe these brave men and women a great deal.
As a Dutch man I am so aware of the liberty that was bestowed upon me by the sacrifice of so many Fathers.
Over the end 180,000 American children were left fatherless by World War II, many of these children never even met their dads.
The children of Cpl. William H. Myers, Jr. wre left without their Father on February 3, 1945. He was killed in action.
His remains are buried at the Netherlands American Cemetery,Margraten in the Netherlands.
This is fo his children.
Your Father died so that many others could live. I and the world owe him a debt which cannot be paid. all I can say is thank you.
His death was not in vain and every time people forget about the sacrifice and his brothers in arms made, I will remind them
Because of them we are free to do what we ant and free to say theing s we feel are important to say.
I think it is extermely important to say that your Father was a Hero.
Only a few days ago we celebrated the 75th anniversary of D-Day. People often forget that D-Day did not mark the end of WWII, it merely marked the beginning of the end.
So many sacrifices were still made in the days and months following D-Day. Thousands and thousands of mainly young men, some the same age as my own 2 sons, gave their lives for the freedom of strangers. Most of them did not know the people they were fighting for, all they knew is that an evil regime had to be beaten.
The title of this blog is a quote which engraved in the Marble reception hall of the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial in Margraten in the Netherlands.
The cemetery was created in October 1944 under the leadership of Joseph Shomon of the 611th Graves Registration Company, as the Ninth United States Army pushed into the Netherlands from France and Belgium. American casualties from the area, and also those that fell in Germany were buried here (as Americans could not be buried permanently in enemy territory)
Currently 8,301 souls are buried here.Stretching along the sides of the court are Tablets of the Missing on which are recorded 1,722 names. Totaling 10,023 souls remembered here. I could write pages and pages on honouting these men but there is only one word that really describes each single one of them-Heroes-.
Below are just some impression of this most hallow of places. Let us never forget.
In this world where the greatest generation often gets disrespected, I am proud to see that there is still so much respect for the men and remembered here. The sight of 8301 pure white marble graves, is awesome,saddening and eerie at the same time, but these hallow soils are treated with the utmost respect.
Sacrificing their own lives for those they would never meet.
They gave their today for our tomorrow.
A tomorrow that we should cherish even more.
They gave their today for our tomorrow.
Their bravery should forever be remembered and ingrained in our hearts.
They gave their today for our tomorrow.
To those who gave their today for my tomorrow, I bow humbly and respectfully and hope I was worth your sacrifice.
The photograph above is of an injured US soldier receiving the last Sacrament from Chaplain Anthony Dolavira of Brooklyn, somewhere behind the lines in France. The photos below are of the Netherlands American War Cemetery in Margraten.
Donation
I am passionate about my site and I know you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2, however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thank you.
To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the PayPal link. Many thanks.
8301 reasons why we should never forget what hate,ignorance and intolerance can do.
8301. although a large number it is only a small percentage of the overall sacrifices made.
8301 men whose future was taken.
8301 who found their final resting place in Margraten,the Netherlands.
Donation
I am passionate about my site and I know you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2, however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thank you.
To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the PayPal link. Many thanks.
I started this website and my blogs to find answers. Answers to how exactly my paternal Grandfather died. all I know is that he died during WWII when he was serving with the Dutch military and that he died early om in the war. But the circumstances how he died are somewhat vague,so I have resigned to the fact that I probably will never find out exactly what happened, for all those who could shed some light on it are now also gone. But I will learn how to live with that.
That’s why this brings so much joy in my heart. Last Saturday,my siblings and I visited the American War Cemetery in Margraten in the Netherlands. It is a place of contrast because it is both a very sad place but also in equal measures a beautiful place. It is surrounded by a beautiful hilly country side, and the cemetery is extremely well maintained.
8,301 souls are buried here.Stretching along the sides of the court are Tablets of the Missing on which are recorded 1,722 names. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified.
All of these 10,023 men are not just names on a cross or star, or a name carved in a wall, they are all heroes, each with a separate story to tell.
As is the story of Sgt David Rosenkrantz.
On 28 September 1944, Rosenkrantz an his platoon was occupying a farm, near Groesbeek, the Netherlands, when they were attacked by an overwhelming force. The isolated paratroopers hid among sparse trees and buildings. As Rosenkrantz rose from his position, enemy gunfire erupted and killed him. Due to enemy fire and the proximity of enemy troops, his remains could not be recovered.
It took decades before the family could have closure in 2012 Sgt David Rosenkrantz’s dog tags were found and only in February 2018 where his remains finally found.
He now no longer is a name on the wall for those who are missing in action. The final chapter of the book of his life was closed.
History of Sorts 
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