White flags were placed in the grass in the Bogortuin in Amsterdam today as a memento of the corona crisis. Eventually, tens of thousands of flags will be placed, each symbolizing a deceased victim of the corona virus. “We are letting go of the measures, but the people who have died will never come back.”
Tens of thousands of flags pinned in the ground for corona deaths
About five people are on their knees in the grass. They stick the small white flags into the ground in straight lines. The commemoration was set up by the Protect Everybody Foundation. “When I look at the flags, I think of my mother,” says Berthe van Soest of the organization. “She died of corona one week before she was to get her shot.”
“I’m thinking about daddy,” says Aleksandra Gil. “And that his death was not in vain, because he is commemorated.”
“That way we can show people what those numbers mean. They are human lives”
Aleksandra’s father had to go to the hospital for treatment for lung cancer. There he contracted corona and that was fatal for him. “It took ten days,” she says. “We couldn’t say goodbye to him in the hospital. On the last phone call he said that he loves us and that we should be there for each other.”
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The foundation will set up a total of 35,000 flags. The initiator of the action says that at the time of ordering, CBS estimated 35,000 corona deaths. This number includes the corona deaths determined by doctors and the excess mortality. The CBS expectation has now risen further to above 40,000.
“I think it’s a nice sight that we can show people what those numbers you keep reading mean,” says Aleksandra. “It’s human lives.”
minute of silence
At 4 pm the monument is officially opened with a number of speeches and a minute of silence. A number of people put flowers in the middle of a number of burning candles. Berthe: “Because we don’t forget them. They are still there, and we mourn them.”
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