From a self-designed monument with a listening post to a boulder, all war memorials in the municipality of De Wolden have been mapped and poured into a bicycle route. However, all monuments? That’s still a bit uncertain.
For the commemorative year 2020, which commemorated 75 years of freedom, the idea arose in Alteveer-Kerkenveld to bundle all monuments in De Wolden in a book. The local 4 May committee Window of Freedom approached the municipality for an overview. That turned out not to exist, so they set to work themselves.
“We know that there are fifteen monuments in the municipality of De Wolden,” says Johan Jonkman of the committee. “Two years ago we raised the question of turning it into a beautiful route and a booklet. But that has all been canceled due to corona. The municipality has not picked it up further, so then we thought: we can do that ourselves.”
Making a complete overview turned out not to be so easy. Because the monuments are not registered. “Perhaps that was once established by the municipalities of Zuidwolde or Ruinen, but the municipality of De Wolden looked at us strangely when we asked about it,” says Jonkman. De Wolden was created in 1998 from four municipalities, the rural municipality is therefore a vast area. You should therefore take your time for the cycling route along the fifteen monuments found, which measures 63 kilometers. “But you can also do it in sections of 15 or 20 kilometers. And you can do it by car,” says Jonkman. That route is slightly different in some places.
The routes are available via the village site and in village hall De Alke. If more monuments do appear, the route can be easily adjusted.
According to Jonkman, it is important to have visible memorial sites. “We had this made five years ago, we designed it ourselves with the committee”, he refers to the Window of Freedom next to the church in Alteveer, which has been there since 2017. “In Alteveer-Kerkenveld, five streets are named after people who have been in the resistance. There are people who live in Jacob Katsstraat and say: I know a lot that he comes from the resistance group. It will be important to keep repeating that, because the older guard leaves and the younger ones don’t remember. And if you make a monument and every year a silent tour with young and old, that is very important.”
Jonkman, of course, thinks that the monument in Alteveer is the most beautiful. During the last commemoration of the dead, a listening pole was placed at the monument. Jonkman: “The monument has been adopted by both primary schools in the villages. The children write poems and the winner is read by the listening pole.”