Amsterdam – The trains stopped, the cars were put next to the road and there were no planes or left in the Netherlands for two minutes on Sunday, since the country was silent to remember the victims of the war.
Thousands of people gathered in Amsterdam to see how Dutch king Willem-Alexander He put a crown crown on a commemorative monument of war, 80 years and one day since the country was released from Nazi occupation in 1945.
The first speaker at the annual event was Marijn van der Wilk, 14, who read a poem he had written about resistance during the war. “They were brothers, sisters, neighbors. Only people, like you or me. At a time when doing good could be deadly. And yet they did,” he said during the televised event at the national level.
Prime Minister Dick Schoof discussed the pain his family felt for the death of his grandfather, who was executed by Nazi soldiers for his work in resistance.
“On this day, in the two minutes of silence, that echo sounds very strong. When we think of all the people who were killed by who they were. They died of hunger or exhaustion. Or who fought for peace and freedom. Our peace and freedom,” Schoof said.
The National Day of Commemoration, in which the flags fly to half a personal half from the buildings throughout the country, honors military personnel and civilians killed in conflicts worldwide from the outbreak of World War II. It is followed on Monday by celebrations to mark the liberation of the country from the Nazi German occupation at the end of the war.
Not all parts of the country observed the memory. Some predominantly Christian areas honored the dead on Saturday, not to interrupt on Sunday.
In The Hague, about hundreds of people gathered for an alternative commemoration. A group of public officials organized on May 4, an event to remember all conflict victims, frustrated with the response of the Dutch government to the conflict in Gaza. According to the association’s website, the official event is too restrictive. “We commemorate both the victims of the past and the victims of today, regardless of where, for whom or when the war, the genocide, the persecution or oppression occurs. We do not want to exclude anyone, all the victims are given a place.”
You could see some Pro-Palestinian slogans in the crowd in Amsterdam.
Later on Sunday night, two veterans will turn on a release fire to start a day of celebrations that marks the 80th anniversary of the end of the German occupation of the Netherlands. Mervyn Kersh, a 100 -year veteran from Great Britain, and Nick Janicki, 101, from Canada, will turn on the flame in Wageningen, the central city where the German officers signed the official surrender in 1945, the organizers said.
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Mike Corder in The Hague contributed to this report.
