Keywords: war, border, memory, World War II, rituals, commemoration

“De oorlog, de grens en de herinnering. Herinneringsculturen van de Tweede Wereldoorlog in Roermond en omstreken”

For seventy-five years, the Second World War was constantly being commemorated, discussed and studied, and war experiences were being retold, documented or forgotten. This dissertation concerns the commemoration of the Second World War in the border region of the Middle Limburg town of Roermond since 1945. By zooming in on forced labor and war (dialect) poetry, it becomes clear that this border region has its own dynamics and does not automatically follow national developments. For example, it turns out to be easier to commemorate concrete local war events together with Germans on the border, than to share rituals surrounding the commemoration of war with Germans on the Dam Square on 4^th of May.