American Cemetery Margraten & the Sint Pietersberg Caves

The American Cemetery at Margraten

Yesterday morning we visited the American Cemetery at Margraten with Jim’s students. It’s the only American cemetery in the Netherlands, and it’s close to Maastricht. More than 8,000 American soldiers who lost their lives during World War II are buried there.

Margraten is a beautiful place, very peaceful. The cemetery’s Superintendent, Keith Stadler, was our guide. He began the tour in the map room, where three huge maps illustrated the Allied military operations in Europe during World War II. Using the maps, Keith gave us a very clear description of the events that followed the Normandy Invasion. He took us to a nearby wall that held stone tablets with the names of WWII American soldiers who were missing in action, 1,722 names. We walked into the rows of white crosses and stars of David to hear Keith speak about a few of the individuals buried there. It was a very moving experience. Later Keith told us that local Dutch people have “adopted” every one of the graves and show their appreciation for the fallen American soldiers by caring for their burial places. He said that families “pass down” the responsibility of caring for the adopted graves from one generation to the next...so wonderful.

Our guide,  Keith Stadler

Later in the afternoon we traveled by boat up the Maas to see the Sint Pietersberg caves. The caves are actually tunnels  cut through the mountain to quarry limestone that was used to build many of the buildings in Maastricht. We learned that during World War II there was a plan in place to shelter the entire population of Maastricht in the tunnels if the city had to be evacuated. They built a chapel in one of the tunnels, too. The evacuation never needed to be implemented. There was lots of ancient graffiti carved into the walls (Napoleon’s signature is there) and some interesting artwork that was created using charcoal. At one point our guide took away the lanterns that some of the students were carrying to light the way, and we were told to walk in the complete darkness, feeling our way along the wall in a low curved tunnel to where she said she’d be waiting with the lanterns. It seemed to take an eternity to reach the light again. It was a good tour, but we were all glad to emerge into daylight when it was over!

Touring the Sint Pietersberg tunnels