Today in Apeldoorn, a commemoration was held to mark the disaster that occurred eighty years ago, in which 22 pupils from what was then the Christian HBS lost their lives. On 7 October 1946, during a PE lesson on Jachtlaan, a military aircraft crashed into the school. The PE teacher and the pilot also lost their lives.
The commemoration was attended by pupils and staff from the present-day Christelijk Lyceum, relatives of the victims and representatives of the Ministry of Defence. Twenty of the pupils who lost their lives are buried in the cemetery where the commemoration took place. Two pupils are buried elsewhere.
During the memorial service, the names of the 22 pupils were read out and flowers were laid. There were speeches and a poem, followed by the tattoo and a minute’s silence. The service also paid tribute to the pilot and his mother, and to the families who had to bear the loss of that day.
Mayor Ton Heerts spoke about the pupils of the past and the pupils of today. The victims were roughly the same age as the pupils currently attending the Christelijk Lyceum. “The world of 1946 is a long way off, but a pupil remains a pupil, a class remains a class, and a parent’s grief for a child knows no time.”
The presence of the current pupils underlined the importance of passing on the memory. “Commemorating means that we continue to mention names. That we continue to tell stories and that we ensure that a new generation, too, knows what happened in our city,” said Heerts.
Eighty years after the disaster, the event remains part of Apeldoorn’s history. Apeldoorn has not forgotten them.
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