Cemetery

This is 'our' field of Honour

The Netherlands

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Immediately after the liberation, a Polish priest and a Dutch priest joined forces to create an impressive tribute.

Breda was liberated on Sunday 29 October 1944. Almost immediately afterwards, the first six fallen of the 9th Infantry Battalion were buried in the Ginneken district. Polish chaplain Bronisław Chrostowski, and pastor Eduard Doens of the Laurentius parish, jointly conducted the funeral service and the Polish casualties were buried in the parish cemetery on Vogelenzanglaan.

Until April 1945, when the Polish troops left Breda, they were billeted in the parsonage. During that long winter, mainly thanks to Doens, all the fallen soldiers of the 9th were laid to rest alongside their comrades in Ginneken. Members of the battalion were also killed during their advance through the eastern and northern Netherlands and Germany and they too found their final resting place in Ginneken.

When, after the war, the municipality of Breda wanted to bring all of the fallen Polish soldiers together in one big field of honour, the inhabitants of Ginneken, led by priest Doens, protested against it with the slogan 'hands off our field of honour'. This is why, to this day, 80 Polish soldiers, 67 of them from the 9th Infantry Battalion, lie buried here. The only other Polish Field of Honour in Breda is on Ettensebaan near the Maczek Memorial.

Address

Vogelenzanglaan 17a, 4835EL Breda, Nederland, Noord-Brabant