A few dozen local residents are waiting for the road between Borger and Bronneger on the procession of allied vehicles that travel through Drenthe this week. When the vehicles arrive, the unveiling of the war memorial for the German pilot Willi Kunz follows.
It seems contradictory: on the road a procession with vehicles from the liberators, a monument for someone who wanted to prevent that. “I think it’s good that we just remember that together,” says a woman by the side. “My parents also said:” Those German boys were also young boys, they were also sent. “
A man drops her out: “They were probably even forced to fight, and they are people too. But if you would ask my mother … her father was shot in the war. She thinks differently.”
The monument is placed by the Air War Research Drenthe Foundation. Rob Wethly of the foundation believes it is important to remember both German and Allied pilots with a so-called Lost Wings monument. “Some people look a bit weird, but we believe that by telling the German side, the history is getting more complete.”
The foundation has now placed around 55 Lost Wings-Monuments. About ten of them are for German pilots. Willi Kunz died during his first mission, on January 1, 1945. The German Air Force already played almost no role at that time, but made a final attempt to cause as much damage as possible.
Kunz crashed on the way back. The then 7-year-old Frederik Dilling saw the aircraft come down when he returned from a family visit in Drouwen. “If children were quickly there; this was sensation,” he says in a short speech. “With the unveiling for this memorial plaque we want to keep the memory alive and express the wish that we will not end up in such a situation again.”
Dilling understands the double feeling for a monument for a German. “But it is true that whoever was our enemies at the time are our friends.”