This memorial commemorates 2 adults and 6 children who died on November 24, 1944, while clearing remaining bombs. The victims are buried in a collective grave at the Roman Catholic Church. Schinnen Cemetery.
The stone with the plaque used to be the monument and this stood a little further away, at the site of the explosion. Now it has been moved slightly and is part of a larger monument together with 8 large stones, one for each victim, and a poem.
Text on plaque:
On November 24, 1944, the following died in a war accident:
Leonard Lambrichs 27 years
Willem Vijgen 24 years old
Willem Wijers 14 years old
Karel Knarren 11 years old
Johan Thiessen 11 years old
Philippus Roverts 10 years
Maria Thiessen 9 years old
Lambertus van Eck 9 years old
Poem in honor of the victims:
In November 44, in this valley of peace
Fought in a war of violence
We said a cheering farewell to the past
Trusting in a future where human life counts.
There were eight of us walking here, still young people
With beautiful nature and silence around us
We were young, even children, with everything in life to expect
However, in one fell swoop our future, our dreams, were shattered.
Abandoned steel suddenly turned the sky red
Too late; there was no later for us
The weeds, the lead, an encounter with death
Our lives slipped away into endless craters here.
Back to the present, reflecting on the past
Let us ask ourselves, "What did humanity learn from this?"
We became sacrifices for peace
A peace that this world still cannot give.
Wheel Raes