British veteran lights Liberation Fire in Wageningen

British veteran Harry Rawlings, 96, lit the Liberation Fire on Wednesday evening at midnight on 5 Mei Square in Wageningen. He did this together with Mayor Floor Vermeulen of Wageningen and the children’s mayor of the Gelderland town, Seppe Meijer zu Schlochtern (11). Shortly after midnight, 1500 relay runners pick up fire in Wageningen to take it to eighty municipalities in the country.

The 96-year-old veteran who fought in World War II himself is part of a group of twenty very elderly British veterans who came to the Netherlands to participate in the Liberation parade in Wageningen on Thursday. The men open the parade in historic army vehicles.

The NOS broadcast the Fire of Freedom program from Wageningen on Wednesday evening from 11 p.m. In that program, the elderly and young people talked about what peace and freedom mean to them. Paul van Vliet and Jamai, among others, also contributed to the direct program.

On Thursday, the fire from Wageningen will be lit at the fourteen Liberation Festivals in the country, among other things. The torch that arrives in Nijmegen is brought to the German border at the end of the afternoon, where German relay runners are ready to bring the Freedom Fire to Kleve in Germany. There, mayor Wolfgang Gebing van Kleve and mayor Hubert Bruls of Nijmegen light the fire. Gebing was also at the memorial ceremony in Nijmegen on Wednesday evening.