Jurre (13) and Niels (13) from Oss have a special task this Wednesday. They help raise the flag and lay the flower wreaths during the commemoration of the dead on Dam Square in Amsterdam. Every year young people from a different province are asked to do this. This year it is the turn of the Brabant scouts. “I hope that people really understand what freedom is during the commemoration.”
At the request of the National Committee for 4 and 5 May, 74 scouts and fourteen sea cadets between the ages of 13 and 17 are allowed to help on Dam Square each year. They then have tasks that range from hoisting the flags to taking care of the flower arrangements.
“I find it very exciting”, says Jurre, “but it will be a very nice experience.” Jurre has been a member of scouting association Saal van Zwanenberg in Oss for a long time. “From the beavers,” he says. That is the age group from 5 to 7 years. He was chosen from 260 scouts who had signed up to help during the Remembrance Day. His job? Raising the flag.
“It’s healthy tension.”
The scouts were allowed to indicate which task they would most like to do. Although Jurre is very proud that he can raise the flag, this was not his first choice. “Number one was laying the wreath. But I already thought that this wouldn’t work, I’m too small for that,” Jurre sighs.
One of the other scouts who has an important task at Dam Square is Niels. He has been a member of the scouting club in Oss since he was seven and is just as nervous about this Wednesday as Jurre. “But it is healthy tension.”
“It is awesome!”
Niels takes care of the flowers. “People are not allowed to take their flowers into the Nieuwe Kerk. They can leave them with us and we will keep them,” explains the scout. “We are also allowed to give flowers to veterans.”
In preparation for the big day, Niels and Jurre went to a ‘preparation camp’. “We went to the Overloon war museum, visited a German war cemetery, saw a play about going into hiding and talked to a refugee from Armenia,” Niels sums up.
“That people really understand freedom.”
Of course, during the camp they also practiced for the tasks they have this Wednesday. The hoisting of the flag must therefore be all right. But according to Jurre it is not easy. “You have to tie a difficult knot. And I don’t know yet which flag to hoist. There are sixteen on Dam Square.”
And Niels is allowed to keep flowers. “During the camp they looked at which task would suit me best,” Niels says proudly.
But it’s not just his job that Niels thinks is important. He thinks that people should really reflect on the occasion on Wednesday. “I hope that people really understand what freedom is during the commemoration. That they commemorate the victims who ensured our freedom and all those involved in all peacekeeping missions thereafter.”