Today it is exactly 77 years ago that the Netherlands was liberated from the German occupier in World War II. More than a million Dutch people who are still alive experienced this. More than 41,000 people live in Drenthe who experienced the liberation.
A large part of them will hardly remember the liberation, because they were still children, according to an analysis of CBS figures by data company Localfocus. 909 living Drenthe had reached adulthood on 5 May 1945, the day the German capitulation came into effect, ending the German hostilities in the Netherlands.
In total, an estimated 1.2 million living Dutch people experienced that day. “By far the largest part of them was a child at the time. About 27 thousand Dutch people who are still alive were already 18 years or older at the time of the liberation,” reports Localfocus. “The number of people who experienced the liberation continues to decrease every year. Especially the group that was already an adult at the time of the liberation is quickly shrinking. Last year there were 38 thousand Dutch people and that is now eleven thousand fewer. “
Of the 41,368 inhabitants of Drenthe who experienced the liberation, most live in the municipality of Emmen (8,726), which is 8.2 percent of the total population of Drenthe’s largest municipality. The percentage is highest in our province in the municipalities of Westerveld and Noordenveld, more than one in ten inhabitants in those municipalities experienced the liberation.