History of adopting graves
The idea of adopting the graves of American liberators originated in February of 1945. The "Burger Comité Margraten" (Citizens’ Committee of Margraten) was established to that end. The goal adopted by the committee was to generate support for the American Cemetery with the help of a large-scale adoption campaign. A person adopting a grave was expected to regularly visit the grave adopted, to lay flowers, and - if that person so desired - to maintain contacts with the surviving relatives in the US.
The response to the campaign was overwhelming. At the first Memorial Day celebration in 1945, all the graves were bedecked with flowers. On the second Memorial Day, a year later, all the graves present, which totalled 18,764 at the time, had been adopted. Captain Shomon - the founder of the American Cemetery - praised the members of the committee for all the work carried out.
The "Citizens’ Committee of Margraten" played a role in launching an extensive series of correspondence between the people adopting the graves and the surviving relatives of the fallen. This resulted in a great many contacts/friendships, which survive to this day.
In 2002, as the members of the citizens’ committee became older and new administrative and communi-cations equipment became available, the work of the committee was taken over by the Foundation for Adopting Graves at the American Cemetery of Margraten, which was created for that purpose. The members of the new Foundation are primarily people with close links to the social and cultural life of the municipality of Margraten. The Foundation considers as its primary goal to carry on the work of the previous committee.
