VALKENBURG 2024 – 80 years free
 |  |  |
Peace vigil
Goudsberg Valkenburg, September 17th, 2014
Photo above: memorial board on the Goudsberg. Next to it Jan Diederen, who with his book has ensured, that also the German soldiers killed here are not forgotten. The board reads:
At liberation commemorations, one group of victims is invariably forgotten: the fallen German soldiers.
Perhaps with the reasoning: The Germans, they are the enemies. They started the war and are to blame for the deaths. But can the soldiers be blamed for being sent into the war? Many, perhaps most, did not do it out of free will.
In the fighting in South Limburg from September 12 to 17, 1944, 513 German soldiers died. Of which 63 here on the Goudsberg.
We want to remember them as well.
On this sunny autumn evening, we gathered on the Goudsberg.
The setting sun colored this so special place. Here, where on September 17, 1944 for Valkenburg the war ended and 63 German soldiers died.
The view was over our Geul valley.
The thoughts, the stories were about peace.
The story of Jan Diederen recorded in his book “my war and liberation” on page 14 about those evening hours back then in 1944.
Anton Laeven told how his father Albert Laeven helped so many people to go into hiding during that terrible war and about Jean Caubo also from Schin op Geul, a member of the Dutch-Paris resistance group.
Fred and Madelein told of their meeting at the Moselle in Germany with that former soldier who still wakes up every night dreaming of his time in Russia.
Marjo talked about her Aunt Trees from Aachen. Who lost her husband and son in that crazy Nazi period and from then until her death a few years ago prayed daily for the return of her beloved ones from far away Russia. In vain.
Therese spoke that we must not close our eyes but do what we can to keep the peace.
Frans, born in the cave of Heidegroeve in 1944, spoke of never war again.
Jo and Riet about their unremitting commitment to peace. Also in our Valkenburg aan de Geul.
More on this: The “battle” on the Goudsberg.
There is another person who is invariably forgotten at commemorations of our liberation. He too was on the German side, he too did not commit war crimes. However, he was not killed in action but shot by someone who thought he was acting on the orders of a court martial in the field. But in fact it was a murder of the Nazi collaborator, the 26-year-old N.S.B. man Funs Savelberg.
| resistance in Valkenburg | genocide of the Jews in Limburg | genocide of the Romani in Limburg and elsewhere | Germans killed in action in Valkenburg-Houthem |