The celebration of 75 years of Freedom in Westerbork will not take place next month. The Westerbork: Village of Freedom foundation, which has already postponed the event three times because of the corona pandemic, does not think it is appropriate to celebrate freedom now that war is raging in Ukraine.
The festivities were moved for a year in April 2020 and also postponed again in April last year due to corona. At the time, the organization expected that it would be possible in September last year, but the virus also threw a spanner in the works.
Now the freedom celebration in Westerbork was planned from 4 to 10 April. Keep Them Rolling, the Dutch Association for the Maintenance of Military Vehicles, would cooperate in the event. “War and the celebration of freedom are so at odds with each other that they are incompatible,” the organization said. “Celebrating a festival of freedom, while elsewhere in Europe a country and its inhabitants are in misery and death due to a war, do not go together.”
Liberty Tour also canceled
Earlier this week it was announced that the Drenthe Liberty Tour, which would take place for the first time after an absence of two years due to the corona virus, has also been cancelled. That organization also finds it inappropriate to commemorate the Dutch liberation because of the war in Ukraine.
The organization of 75 years of Freedom in Westerbork will look at whether the party can still be celebrated later.