All places at the front on Dam Square in Amsterdam are occupied by 6 p.m. The National Remembrance Day starts here. A family with young children eats fries from a large white bag while sitting against the crush fence. Further on, a man makes a selfie of the group with whom he came to the commemoration.
This year it is a lot less hassle to come ‘inside’. Last year people had to register in advance and show a ticket at the entrance gates. Everyone was also searched; Flags, plates and sound -reinforcing equipment were forbidden. They were extra security measures due to the increased chance of unannounced Pro-Palestinian protest due to the war in Gaza.
That threat is now less and the extra measures are not necessary. There is a lot of police on their feet, but everyone can go through the gates, where volunteers from the National Committee 4 and 5 May hand out memory pins.
Patiently, the Friends Maarten (24) and Mark (27) explain to a tourist what will happen. Both don’t mention their last names. They have traveled to Amsterdam specially from the Achterhoekse Dorp Rekken. “It’s pretty important,” says Maarten. “I will soon be thinking of loved ones who are struggling. Not so much because of war. Although peace is not as obvious as we have thought for a long time.” Mark nods. “Now that I am here I think of the freedom we have. And given everything that happens in the world, I realize how easily you can lose it.”
The nieces Erna, Mirande and Dinette came to Amsterdam by train from the head of Overijssel. They don’t mention their last names. The brother of the 43-year-old Erna, a veteran who was stationed for six months during the war in Bosnia in Potocari, a city northwest of Srebrenica, is part of the Waiting on Dam Square. “I am here for him, but also for the people who have given their lives, in the Second World War and then.”
One of those people is the brother of Erna’s niece Miranda. “He was part of Dutchbatt that was broadcast to Lebanon in the 1980s to keep peace there,” Miranda says. “He experienced things that he could never talk about. That was so heavy for him that he went under it. He was only thirty years old when he died.”
Dinette is here for her two cousins who have served. “I have so much respect for people who have served and, like Miranda’s brother, have paid the highest price,” she says. “It is important to stand still, especially considering all the misery that is currently available in the world.”
In the meantime, the Dam flows fuller and fuller. “I see nothing at all,” a woman complains in the audience. She stands on her toes. “The next time I have to put on chopping.” A little further on, a tall boy – who is about as far from the fence as the woman – says satisfied to his father that he is ‘just right’.
The alternative commemoration
It is not the only way in which May 4 this year is experienced differently. The war in Gaza continues and among some of the Dutch the inconvenience about the national commemoration of the dead is growing. They no longer want to commemorate victims of the Second World War.
A group of civil servants and former diplomats decided to organize ‘4 May including’, an alternative memorial in The Hague. The group got to know each other during the weekly protest against the Dutch Israel policy, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague. The alternative national commemoration of the dead thinks about all the suffering caused by the people or omissions of the Dutch state worldwide. NRC told organizer and former diplomat Tessa Terpstra that she now gets ‘abdominal pain’ from the National Remembrance Day, due to ‘Dutch dignitaries who do commemorate the victims of the Second World War on Dam Square, but look away from the genocide in Gaza’.
At half past six, half an hour before the start of ‘4 May including’, the procession does not seem to stop people who runs from The Hague Central to the commemoration. The police estimate the number of people who gathered at 2,500 between the trees and around the stage in the edge next to the Malieveld at the start. Five times more than the organization thought before. A few children climb into the trees to have a good view of the speakers and musicians. Some visitors wear a Keffiyeh – a Palestinian scarf – or have pinned a small watermelon – symbol of the Palestinian resistance. Others have a sunflower, tulip, white rose or olive branch with them.
Photo Giel Bonte
Photo Giel Bonte
Photo Giel Bonte
One of the visitors is Nico Troost (66). He traveled from Monnikendam to The Hague. In earlier years he visited a commemoration in Amsterdam, on the KNSM island. Every year, staff members of the Royal Dutch Steamboat Maatschappij are commemorated there who died during the Second World War. But now he wants to be here: with a memorial where the pain is also thought of people who suffer now, he says. He is not afraid of dilution of a commemoration. “One suffering is not above the other. Everything deserves attention.”
“I have seen some violence, whatever violence,” says Troost. He is referring to his father, to whom he will initially think during the two minutes of silence, he says. His father experienced the Second World War, but never talked about it. According to Troost, he became a strict, stubborn man in the years that followed by his Christian faith.
Mohamed (35) from Almere is on shiny white shoes and waiting for a friend in a denim jacket. He does not mention his last name. During the two minutes of silence he thinks of everyone who died for his freedom, he says. He wants to think of the injustice now and during the Second World War.
In particular, he thinks of all the children who suffer and have suffered now. He works in childcare, hence. He finds the news about children who are hungry in Gaza terribly painful to see, he says. He feels powerless, the only thing he can do is donate to aid organizations. “And here.” Why does he also want to think about Gaza? “The promise of commemoration of the dead are: never again. That must be fulfilled now,” he says.
More people than last year
In the meantime, around 16,000 people have gathered on Dam Square in Amsterdam. A lot more than last year, when there were around 5,000 attendees. The commemoration is without major disruptions. After the two minutes of silence at eight o’clock, Prime Minister Dick Schoof gives a speech. The Prime Minister does this once every five years. A few dozen people turn his back on him, for which activist Frank van der Linde had previously called. According to him, the Cabinet Schoof is ‘complicit in the genocide in Gaza’. The police have arrested a total of six people on and around Dam Square, reports ANP.
Gaza does not mention shove in his speech. He does talk about the war history of his family; His grandfather was shot during the Second World War for his resistance work. A hint to Gaza could be found in the sense: “In a world full of war, people lose sight of each other.” He is also talking about “the ultrasound from the past” that can be heard “at the darkest moments.” “It is also the ultrasound that calls us eighty years after the liberation to keep commemorating. And to think about what this means here and now for us.”
Fierce criticism of the cabinet
In the alternative national commemoration of the dead in The Hague, the speakers all express fierce criticism of the Schoof cabinet. Hedy d’Ancona, who survived the Holocaust, talks about the danger of populist leadership. “Then and now.” In his speech, the photographer Mohammed Al Zaanoun fled from Gaza makes a request to King Willem-Alexander: “Your voice can make a difference. We ask you to use your platform and express yourself for Gaza, for the protection of innocent citizens.”
Attention was also paid to the war in Bosnia in the early 1990s, which Mustafa fled Hadziibrahimovic. “Fascism was unfortunately not defeated in the Second World War, there are fascists in our cabinet, Lower House and Media.” Emeritus professor of social and cultural anthropology Gloria Wekker calls the actions of the current political world leaders “breathtaking shameless”. According to the anthropologist, we look at a couple of “autocratic old white men who coordinantly long for the imperialist power of the 1930s.”