Renewed info center Canadian Cemetery is now open for the public

After months of building rebuilding and preparing the renewed info center of the Canadian Cemetery in Holten saw a lot of its plans thrown upside down by the corona pandemic. More than three months later than planned the stories of the fallen soldiers can be heard and seen again on the Holterberg, as of Sunday, June 21.

Three days before the reopening of the information center of the Canadian Cemetery, the last odd jobs are being done.The electrician is working on the lighting,and the people of the cleaning service are making the exhibition room spic-and –span. In the course of the day the volunteers will be given an elaborate “corona instruction”. “We will make sure our visitors will get the safest reception possible here”, says committee member Henk Vincent.

Pupils
The visitors center next to the cemetery, where 1394 fallen Canadians are buried, was closed from October. Every year since the opening in 2011, about 27,00 visitors have paid a visit to the center. Among the visitors are many pupils.”That clashed at times with the other visitors”, says Albert van der Maat, former chair and co-founder of the information center. We used to say that we actually needed a special classroom to be able to separate the two groups”.

Conflicting situations
At times it occurred that one audio fragment was drowned by the sounds of an other exposition because they were played in the same room.”Things started to conflict”, Vincent says. “As we had already planned an extension of the entrance, we now opted for a robust rebuilding”.

Festivities postponed
The festive opening was set for April 8, the day the town of Holten was liberated by the Canadians 75 years ago. The corona pandemic changed everything.”Things got delayed because of companies withdrawing their workers”, says Vincent. They could not work in the same room at the same time”. Since all public events became forbidden, the board was forced to postpone the opening festivities.

“Pupils want to know why these young people came to fight in a faraway country. Why they made those sacrifices”.- Albert van der Maat, Canadian Cemetery Holten

So there will be no party just yet, but visitors are welcome again after Sunday, June 21. As planned, the entrance has been extended considerably and a classroom has been added to the back space. Here volunteers can entertain their groups. “Most teachers would be proud of a nice classroom like this one here”, says Vincent.

Life stories
In the exhibition room three niches have been realized. Here visitors can experience video and audio fragments, without being bothered by other people or sounds.The eye-catcher is the new experience room”. In here , visitors can experience the life stories and the war stories of ten Canadian soldiers that fell in the north or in the east of The Netherlands.

Letters of soldiers
The visitors can choose a life story via a digital panel, and then a tragedy, visualized in 3D, unfolds itself before their eyes. The stories are based on photos and letters that were sent to their relatives back in Canada by the young front soldiers. “We had those stories recorded by Canadian actors”, Vincent tells us .”One of the stories in French as well”.


These stories are highly appreciated by the visitors of the center.”One day we started digging up the stories behind the graves”, van der Maat explains.”These personal stories appeal to people tremendously , sometimes even more so than the military history. Pupils want to know why these young people came to fight in a faraway country. Why they made those sacrifices”.

Deeply moved
It is the board’s ambition to write the biography of each soldier that is buried here. This has already been achieved in about half of the cases.”Relatives of soldiers from Canada are deeply moved when they come here”. As of Sunday, June 21 the info center is open to the public again, be it with somewhat different opening hours, only in the afternoon. The official opening is not due before next year.

Source: https://www.destentor.nl/rijssen-holten/vernieuwd-infocentrum-canadese-begraafplaats-in-holten-opent-de-deuren-en-wij-namen-alvast-een-kijkje~a550e32e/