Very successful presentations by Overloon War Chronicles

Kamil Aerts presenting

It is with great pleasure that we can look back on a very successful and well-attended evening at The Pit last Friday where Kamil Aerts and Piet Peters gave a full-length presentation.
The presentation “Inhabited – occupied – liberated” was perfectly presented by Kamil. With a superbly constructed and executed presentation, we were literally taken back to pre-war times to get an idea of what the village and the lives of Overlooners were like at that time. But also how the German occupation took form afterwards, resulting in all the misery and evacuations. An emotional moment especially was also when Kamil told about the period after the liberation and the names of those who died during and because of the war were mentioned by him one by one. The silence and emotion in the hall was tangible. Kamil received huge applause not only for compiling and sorting out the stories about the Overlooners, but also for the way his presentation was structured and presented.
 
Then it was Piet Peters’ turn to take the audience back to “the week of the Americans”, from 30 September to 7 October 1944 in which he outlined, with great knowledge and precision, how the Americans too initially tried to break through the German lines. To many, it was still hardly known that the Americans too had been in this area and unfortunately, after a week, with many losses, both in material and manpower and only a few kilometres of terrain gained, had to hand it over to the British who eventually succeeded, also after many losses, in driving out the German occupiers. With much admiration for his in-depth knowledge of the Battle of Overloon (and beyond), Piet also received a great applause and appreciation.

 
During the break and after the presentations, the audience could take a look at a small part of the collection that Tonnie Ebben had brought from his museum Van Postzegel tot Tank (From Stamp to Tank) in Groeningen. Fantastic once again that Tonnie, despite his busy work in the country, makes himself free to take care of this for our Foundation.
His latest acquisition, the street sign “Loobeek” brought back special and emotional memories for many.

We thank all the team members of our Foundation who contributed to this successful evening, for the hard work done. And ofcourse we thank the audience from the hall for your presence and appreciation of our work.
 
Many thanks also to the team at De Pit who provided excellent facilities and care, during this event.