WELCOME

WELCOME

During the second World War the Allied and German soldiers, who were killed in Goirle and in the neighbourhood, were buried at the Roman Catholic cemetery from the parish St. Jan in Goirle.

After the war the remains of the German soldiers were reburied in Ysselsteijn (near Venray) and most of the allied soldiers were reburied in Bergen op Zoom (War Cemetery and Canadian War Cemetery) and in Leopoldsburg (Belgium, War Cemetery).

Every year we commemorate the victims of World War II, both soldiers and civilians.
We know their names, but who were the persons behind the names? What were their lives before they died? Where did they come from? How did they die? Under what circumstances?

It is my intention to give the victims a face, to write and keep the story behind the gravestones because we always will remember the soldier who died for our liberty.

We can forget names, but not faces.
I will try to write down all their stories for the next generation so they will know who was commemorated. But how ? Last year november I met Barrie Walters on the internet and together we decided to start the projct Keeping their Memory Alive. (See: But for a stone....)

Maybe you can help us in this matter. Send me or my friend Barrie a letter or an e-mail with additional information, a photograph or a copy of any personal document, which I can use for The Memory Book or a website.

Thank you in advance for your help
Gerrit Kobes
Goirle (Netherlands)
Click here to mail me

Barrie Walters
Rochford Essex (U.K.)
Click here to mail me

Commemoration 27 october 2012

It was a sunny but cold day this 27. of october. Nevertheless, there were 300 people on the churchyard in Goirle. From the UK were present Peter and Cynthia Condé, Pauline and Michael Randall and the veterans Richard Evans and Jimmy James. The schoolchildren of the OBS De Bron contributed poems, even in English!! This year I told the people the story of Graham Cridland, the brother of Pauline Randall-Cridland. And of course, Marij van Belkom sang the beatutifull song We'll meet again for us. See here the phots of photomaker Jos Lamers.

Cricket team Albert Jeeves

During the Commemoration I met Cynthia and Peter Condé and they brought me a photo of the cricket team of the Laburnum Council School 1926. On this phot we see Albert Jeeves, the first husband of Cunthia's mother. Albert died in 1945, march 15 and he was buried in Goirle. Thanks Cynthia and Peter!
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