With every fallen soldier comes a story

The Faces to Graves Foundation literally and figuratively gives each soldier buried at the Groesbeek Canadian Cemetery a face. The story of each is picked and written down by volunteers. The Canadian families feel very involved.

Piles of letters, photos and personal anecdotes Alice van Bekkum from Milsbeek has received in recent years. She leafs through the folders, full of emotional stories and memories of the young men from Canada who came here to fight for us. "They are poignant histories, unimaginable sometimes. The youngest soldier lying here is sixteen," Alice sighs. "Sixteen! He must have lied about his age when he came here."

It had to be
Alice is from the western Netherlands, but has lived in Milsbeek for more than thirty years. "Here you can't avoid the war, you see memorials everywhere. We are very interested in history, which is why we decided earlier to become host families for veterans, who came here during the commemorations." This is how she came into contact with a number of Canadian veterans. "In addition, in the cemetery where my parents lie, in Gorinchem, I found the grave of one Canadian soldier. How did he end up there? It intrigued me and I decided to find out. He had died near Driel and had been taken by the river for dozens of kilometers. It turned out he was from the same place as one of the veterans who had been with us." "It had to be," as Canadians like to say. It piqued her interest in history even more, and she and several others decided to establish the Faces to Graves Foundation in 2015. Their mission: to give every soldier buried in the Canadian cemetery a face, literally and fi gure, by recording their story. "To my mind, it was ten to twelve. We wanted to make the stories as complete and personal as possible, but for that we also depend on relatives who still know the stories." The foundation was able to make use of military archives and the snowball began to roll. More and more Canadian relatives came into the picture who wanted to tell about their deceased father, brother or uncle. Several volunteers and a number of school classes are writing the stories. "Completing the puzzle and writing it down with respect is a very beautiful thing to do."

At the grave
Family members from Canada regularly come to the cemetery. Alice: "They appreciate our work. The involvement remains great. It is very emotional to see the family standing by a grave after all these years." As part of 75 years of freedom, Faces to Graves had prepared a photo project. That could not take place at the time because of the corona crisis. Since then, many more soldiers have been pictured; more than 700 life stories have been written. A total of 2619 soldiers lie in the Groesbeek cemetery. "When you hear someone's life story, such history comes in even more. And that is important, because we must not forget them."

Photo: Alice van Bekkum with portrait of a fallen soldier at the Canadian War Cemetery in Groesbeek.