"At restaurant 'Het Jachthuis' the main road in Hoog Soeren makes a right angle turn. In that bend, a dirt road goes straight ahead and there, about fifty meters off the paved road, is a Canadian oak tree with a sign commemorating April 17, 1945.
On that day, Canadian troops moved west through the village and en passant liberated this village. There was no longer any question of German resistance. The supporting Canadian artillery moved into position on the open ground next to the Jachthuis and a command post was set up in the village.
The village of Hoog Soeren survived the war relatively well. Its isolated location and the presence of extensive, well camouflaged ammunition storage areas protected the village to some extent. In the last winter of the war, many people were recruited to work in the depots. In this way, the infamous raids could be avoided. Hotel Oranjeoord was the German headquarters from which the ammunition transports were arranged. On 16 April the residents of Hoog Soeren were ordered to leave the village, because all the ammunition would be blown up. Due to sabotage, only a small part was actually blown up, so the damage in the village was limited to broken windows and roof tiles blown away. There were no casualties.
On Saturday, March 23, 1946, an American oak tree was planted as a liberation tree and a bottle containing a document was buried under the oak tree, that's for sure. Only in 1989 a fence was placed around the tree and the sign with the text:
'Hoog Soeren liberated by Canadians 17-4-1945'.
In late 2017 it was determined that the tree was diseased and needed to be cut down. This took place in February 2018. The stump was also removed in March; the bottle has not yet been recovered, but the investigation continues.
The new tree was planted on December 19, 2018.
The new certificate in a German shell casing was added on February 8, 2019 by Alderman Nathan Stukker and Mrs. Lies de Jong - van Veen under the watchful eye of the Board of the Neighborhood and Interest Association and representatives of the Municipality of Apeldoorn.
The bench is made of the wood of the old liberation tree. The sketch design was made by Mrs. Lies de Jong- van Veen and worked out by the carpenter of the municipal yard, Henri Konijnenberg. Under his supervision, the bench was made by people with a distance to the labor market. The bench was placed on October 31, 2019 and put into use on December 31, 2019 during the oliebollenfeest."
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