National Remembrance Day will take place at the monument tonight. The king and queen will be present, wreaths will be laid and a two-minute silence will be held at 8 p.m. in memory of the victims of the Second World War and later war situations and peace missions.
Cleaning takes effort
Eight to nine cleaners are working this morning to spray the monument clean with high-pressure cleaners. “They are doing their best, but it looks like it is quite complicated to get it off,” says NH reporter Sjoerd Hilarius. “The two barking dogs are still daubed with red paint and a part above them too.”
Mayor Femke Halsema said via social media that she found it an ‘incredibly cowardly act’. “This is not a protest, but vandalism and deliberate damage to our national monument.” In addition, she says: “It not only hurts relatives of the Second World War, but all Dutch people for whom our national commemoration is important.”
It is still unclear who is responsible for the action.
Monument previously targeted
It is not the first time that the National Monument on Dam Square has been the target of graffiti; that also happened in August last year, during a pro-Palestinian demonstration.
About two months later, the Palace on Dam Square was also smeared with red paint. It also contained the text “fuck Israel”. Action group Palestine Action NL then demanded the action. The red paint was to illustrate ‘the blood’ that ‘the Dutch state has on its hands’.
