Monuments to Peace
70 years liberation
On May 5, the Netherlands celebrates 70 years of liberation and freedom. Prior to that celebration, on May 4, all over the country people come together at one of the many war memorials to commemorate the victims of the war years 1940-1945.
In 1946, members of the former resistance, united in the National Memorial Committee, took the initiative for the first National Memorial Day. The committee also created the guidelines for organising local commemorations, often held at places where people were executed during the occupation. Starting in 1947, a memorial was organised at the Ridderzaal in The Hague, which also included members of the so-called corps diplomatique. This ceremony concluded with two minutes of silence. In 1961, the national memorial was moved to Amsterdam, where the Monument on the Dam had been revealed five years earlier. In those years, the memorial took place at four o'clock in the afternoon.
Local memorials were traditionally held at 8 pm. The memorial service at the Waaldorpervlakte, in the dunes near The Hague, has gotten a special status due to the public broadcast that was annually organised at this memorial ceremony. For many Dutch citizens who commemorated May 4 from home, the image of the crosses in the sand and the bell that is rung by the military is etched in their memory.
Since 1988, the national commemoration is held in its current form, at 8 pm at the Dam in Amsterdam, in the presence of the King and broadcasted live on television. The organisation is in the hands of the National Committee for 4 and 5 May, which was founded at the request of the government. Although the number of actual witnesses of the war is decreasing, the interest in commemoration only seems to be growing in recent years. Particularly striking is the participation of large groups of young people, both on the Dam and at local ceremonies.