Relatives
Relatives who have their loved ones lying on Loenen Field of Honor are our main guides in this special memorial project. They share their stories with us. Tell us what can and cannot be done. They tell us who their loved ones are that they lost. They tell about their families in which a hole has been left by war. About their own journey in search of an answer to the loss so that their lives can go on. Even when a piece of it seems to have stopped forever. With these families as our guide, we explore the boundaries of the new commemoration and seek the language to engage young people in the commemoration of now and the future.
If you are a relative and would like to contact us, please contact info@herdenkenvolleven.nl.
The relatives are forever connected to the Field of Honor. Not only on May 4th Memorial Day but every day of the year. At the graves of their loved ones, they tell us about who they were; they tell the aborted life story and they tell of the impact of this loss on their own lives and those of partners, parents, siblings and subsequent generations. It is these stories that testify to how the loss from war impacts generations and how these younger generations and children of peace also remain connected to the Field of Honor.
Peace and Freedom are not to be taken for granted
'Why are you standing here?" asks a student to a soldier standing behind the grave of a UN soldier killed in 2009. 'I am a soldier myself,' he says. 'That means that the soldiers lying here are actually colleagues of mine. They died fighting for peace and freedom in another country, and I know that if I am deployed, the same thing could happen to me. Should that happen, I would also like to be honored. I would want people to remember me. That is why I stand here, I find it an honor to commemorate my fallen comrades from this place. For many in the Netherlands, and certainly the post-war generations, peace and freedom seem obvious. They are not. Once they were fought for, once other countries came to the rescue of the Netherlands. Just as the Netherlands now participates in international peace operations.