European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 24, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Fog us soldiers from the 82 airborne carry the casket of 2nd it. Willis Utecht at the ceremony in Margartet. Al Jive 72-year old Moffet burls salutes a fallen Comrade. Dutch Overlook mistakes giving by Effie Batman staff writer t the Back of St. Stephen s Church not far from the us. 82nd airborne div color guard and the British Royal Grenadier guards a 75-year old dutch woman forgave the americans -. The americans bombed Here said net Nachtegall of the february 1945 accidental bombing of Nijm Egen Netherlands. But we have forgiven them  she prayed for the Allied veterans she said glad that they could come Back and give thanks 50 years after the operation Market Garden Battles. She joined the memorial service attended by hundreds of veterans and their relatives. She was one of some 200,000 dutch people who turned out in driving Rains to attend ceremonies sunday on the anniversary of Market Garden and the liberation of the Southern Netherlands. At the Church service veterans filled the pews under the wooden vaulted ceilings and 30-candled chandeliers. Those in wheelchairs made their own rows. Some silvered Heads tipped Down to snooze. Some peered through video cameras. Some tipped their Heads up to Stop tears. About a third of the mostly British veterans took communion. Theirs was the generation that saved Europe from Adolf Hitler and his nazi army. Most knew that they had done something important. If they did not then people like nacht Egami did. They simply explain they Are our liberators another woman Verspoor Vallen was 12 during world War ii. But she remembered the names of the two Indiana gis who her parents took into their Home. Capt. John Smith and capt. John  she shot off their names As if they were As Well known As Eisenhower or Patton. She remembered How they came Back alter the Battle for the Bridges she said. They cried. Smith would not go into a room with a gun. Skeleton told them How he was headed for the ardennes. She did not know it then but he was walking into the Battle of the bulge Hitler s last major offensive As the allies pushed for Berlin she remembered How Skeleton had autographed a $20 Bill for a Keepsake. After the War when the dutch revalued their currency her Mother traded it to buy food. Have you heard this Story asked Ellen Marie Vogel another nil Negen resident Hitler was standing on the Channel looking toward England when Moses walked up. I wish i had one of your staffs so i could part the sea Hitler told the bearded Prophet. Sorry replied Moses. It s in the. British  she told the Story gleefully after the Bells and bagpipes from the ceremony finished. In the War a Story like that would have landed you in a concentration Camp she said. It is because the allies liberated the Netherlands that she can say As she pleases she explained. Hitler was no joking matter her jewish parents believed when they sent her into hiding in the Nijm Egen orthopaedic clinic. She was 9. It s not such a bad Story she said about her experience compared to Anne Frank s. Vogel whose Back is deformed said that to have to remain silent would have been a greater torture. Did Vogel know where her parents were yes Auschwitz and sob ibor she said  concentration Camps. The deep feelings that the dutch have for their american liberators was also evidenced at a funeral service the week before at the american military cemetery at Margrate. Willis Utecht a go who fought at the Battles of Nijm Egen was buried he had been considered missing until dutch Farmers discovered his body while blowing their Field. More than 50 years later an Ocean and a half a continent away from where the Kansas farm boy left to Ellen Marie Vogel says it is because of her liberators that she can Tell jokes today. Fight a War some of those he fought for mourned him. When asked about the significance of Utecht s death dutchman Cornelius tamers pointed to a dutch army Veteran s pin on his Lapel. As an infantryman he had faced the 1940 German Blitzkrieg in the Greb Beberg Region one of the bloodiest Battles for him and his countrymen. We Don t want War anymore said tamers visibly moved. It should not have  also among the 200 mourners who turned out in a driving rain to pay their respects to the american Soldier was Nicole Beezer who held a single Pink Rose. Beezer was part of a generation that Utecht never lived to see. She said that her father was 22 when the German s invaded her country and went on to fight in Indonesia. He died last year. She had come to the cemetery because she adopted one of the grave Sites for another Soldier. She approached american veterans attending the service asking if they remembered that Soldier. She cried she said for them All. 22 the stars and stripes saturday september 24,1994