Our Forgotten Heroes: keeping the memory alive
The campaign Our Forgotten Heroes focuses on repatriated victims: fallen soldiers transferred to their former places of residence upon their families’ request and (re)buried in local cemeteries. However, many of those graves have disappeared over the years.
The commemorative plaque Pro Patria on the still existing graves keeps the memory of these “forgotten heroes” alive.
Our Forgotten Heroes ‘14-‘18
In 2018 the WHI launched the campaign Our Forgotten Heroes ‘14-‘18. Countless villages and towns supported the project. Some 3,900 plaques on the graves and 1,000 remembrance plaques by the cemetery entrance have been posted in no less than 345 municipalities.
Our Forgotten Heroes ‘40-‘45'
Our Forgotten Heroes ’40-’45 was launched in 2019, the year of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Belgium. Some 210 villages and towns now commemorate their repatriated Second World War “forgotten heroes” with 2,700 Pro Patria 40-45 plaques and 200 remembrance plaques.
Our Forgotten Heroes 'Korea'
Victims from other conflicts are honoured as well. Since 2021 most of the graves of Korea victims have thus been marked with a Pro Patria plaque.