[John Manrho]

Perhaps a few more comments on the Ysselsteyn War Cemetery. After the war the Dutch government was faced with about 35,000+ graves of German soldiers. A rough estimate of mine is that about 50% of these dead were buried at local cemeteries by the Germans. These include the dead that washed ashore. The remainder were buried in Field graves or were buried in bigger cemeteries by the Allies. Examples are the German War Cemetery at Margraten (next tot he US one) with 3,075 dead and Mierlo War Cemetery with about 300. Please note also that the majority of the Germans buried at Margraten were actually killed on German soil but transported by the US Graves Registration Units to Margraten.

Direct after the war the Dutch Government decided to collect all German dead at one big cemetery. A site was chosen near the village of Ysselsteyn near Venray. The first dead reburied were the ones buried at Margraten. In fact the complete cemetery was 1:1 copied at Ysselsteyn and all these dead were reburied by US Grave Registration Units. The first Blocks at Ysselsteyn (A till K) contain these dead. This was done in late 1946.

Directly after that the Dutch Ministry of Defense started reburial of all the other dead. Please note: This was a Dutch undertaking, not a German one. The well known Kapt. Timmermans had a major role in this job which took to about the late sixties to complete. Of every single grave a report was made. Numerous soldiers were identified. Many of the unknows were examined twice to try to identify them. In 1974 the cemetery was handed over to the VDK. The files at the VDK do not contain always the location of death or the unit. If anyone needs this information and has only a small list the best information can be obtained by the WAST in Berlin. There is more information at the VDK but with their big task in the East and the limited staf they still have for the cemeteries in the West it is almost impossible for them to make a deeper search into the original burial files.

regards,

John.