THE HAGUE
Last Friday and Saturday, the Fourth and Fifth of May, the Dutch celebrated their freedom. May 4 was Remembrance Day, May 5 Liberty Day. Contrary to such celebrations in several western countries, the accent in the Dutch ceremonies is less on the historical struggle against Fascism and the Third Reich, and more on freedom values.
On Remembrance Day, ceremonies to remember the fallen are held in practically every town and village. These ceremonies are, in most cases, centered around the graves of resistance fighters or Allied troops who were killed by the Germans during the Second World War (Holland didn’t partake in WWI), or at memorial sites for Holocaust victims. But it’s not only the dead from WWII and the Holocaust that are remembered, it’s everyone, everywhere who fell victim to tyrants and/or who fell in defence of freedom. Thus, the Dutch accentuate the need to be aware that freedom must never be taken for granted, that it has its price up to this day. Hence, remembrance in Dutch political culture is not a reification of the past as “History” to be taken lessons from, but as History in which we partake.
Not surprisingly, these ceremonies are attended by people from all walks of life, regardless of ideology. Remembrance is not in the “possession’”of the political right (as it is in so many countries) - and it never has been. Shortly after 1945, when Remembrance Day was instituted, one memorial site that was to be central to the ceremonies was the burial place of a number of Dutch resistance fighters, among whom were Communists. Rightist, conservative political forces in those years tried to “claim” national remembrance notions by stressing that the Communists had been staunchly against Dutch Democracy before the war - but none other than Queen Wilhelmina herself, in spite of her officially “unpolitical” role, made a point. She posthumously conferred the Military Order of William, the highest medal the Crown can give, upon resistance heroes - Communist or otherwise, for “courage, direction and loyalty”. The point was taken: the fight is not for a particular society or system, but for freedom.
Depending on the particular brand of government at any given Fourth of May, the official tone of remembrance may vary. But the remembrance is pointedly of all who died, under all tyrants and in all wars. It’s a typically Dutch, slightly Anarchist trait to have the military present at such ceremonies, yet at the same time to feel slightly uneasy with all these uniforms around.
When you live in freedom, you have reason to celebrate. So immediately after May 4, the same freedom for which people have died, is celebrated. And again, people from all walks of life, regardless of ideology, partake. After all, that’s what Freedom is about.
Wim Bartelds
U.N. OBSERVER & International Report
Last Friday and Saturday, the Fourth and Fifth of May, the Dutch celebrated their freedom. May 4 was Remembrance Day, May 5 Liberty Day. Contrary to such celebrations in several western countries, the accent in the Dutch ceremonies is less on the historical struggle against Fascism and the Third Reich, and more on freedom values.
On Remembrance Day, ceremonies to remember the fallen are held in practically every town and village. These ceremonies are, in most cases, centered around the graves of resistance fighters or Allied troops who were killed by the Germans during the Second World War (Holland didn’t partake in WWI), or at memorial sites for Holocaust victims. But it’s not only the dead from WWII and the Holocaust that are remembered, it’s everyone, everywhere who fell victim to tyrants and/or who fell in defence of freedom. Thus, the Dutch accentuate the need to be aware that freedom must never be taken for granted, that it has its price up to this day. Hence, remembrance in Dutch political culture is not a reification of the past as “History” to be taken lessons from, but as History in which we partake.
Not surprisingly, these ceremonies are attended by people from all walks of life, regardless of ideology. Remembrance is not in the “possession’”of the political right (as it is in so many countries) - and it never has been. Shortly after 1945, when Remembrance Day was instituted, one memorial site that was to be central to the ceremonies was the burial place of a number of Dutch resistance fighters, among whom were Communists. Rightist, conservative political forces in those years tried to “claim” national remembrance notions by stressing that the Communists had been staunchly against Dutch Democracy before the war - but none other than Queen Wilhelmina herself, in spite of her officially “unpolitical” role, made a point. She posthumously conferred the Military Order of William, the highest medal the Crown can give, upon resistance heroes - Communist or otherwise, for “courage, direction and loyalty”. The point was taken: the fight is not for a particular society or system, but for freedom.
Depending on the particular brand of government at any given Fourth of May, the official tone of remembrance may vary. But the remembrance is pointedly of all who died, under all tyrants and in all wars. It’s a typically Dutch, slightly Anarchist trait to have the military present at such ceremonies, yet at the same time to feel slightly uneasy with all these uniforms around.
When you live in freedom, you have reason to celebrate. So immediately after May 4, the same freedom for which people have died, is celebrated. And again, people from all walks of life, regardless of ideology, partake. After all, that’s what Freedom is about.
Wim Bartelds
U.N. OBSERVER & International Report