Actually, it was new last December. When I last visited the cemetery in November 2023, the building was finished, but it hadn’t been officially opened yet. That happened last year in December.
Last weekend, I briefly visited it again, on my way from Valkenburg (see previous post about the exhibition ‘Through Their Eyes’).
The cemetery itself is always worth a visit and is one of the most beautifully landscaped I have ever seen.
At the Visitor Center, the exhibition goes all around and at the center, there’s a small cinema. The displays around it show the various theatres of war where soldiers buried in Margraten were killed: the air war, Market Garden, Hürtgen Forest, the Bulge, Germany…
The texts and photos are really interesting. Not too long and not too short. The display cases are very nice and modern, but the items on display are often replicas, which I think is a pity for such a prestigious new building. A replica paratrooper helmet, even replica ration boxes and sweets. Surely, it wouldn’t break the bank to procure original items, and they would be very well protected here.
There certainly are some very interesting original period artefacts too, such as a pilot helmet display, parts of a glider, a tank commander’s M43 jacket etc.
More about the new Visitor Center
Also read about: The Faces of Margraten