World War II was an enormous tragedy. Have you ever wondered how the Dutch
remember the Second World War? That's what you're going to find out today.
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I'm standing here in my hometown Utrecht,
in the hearth of the Netherlands on Dom Square. The statue behind me commemorates the Second
World War. I've traveled to many places by now and it's interesting to see the differences about how
a past conflict is portrayed in museums, statues and movies. Me as a native Dutchmen can elaborate
on how WW II is remembered here in the Netherlands.
The most important thing you have to realize is that the Netherlandswas and is a small country
that got invaded by it's far more powerfull neighbor. Not only that, many people in the
Netherlands believed that the Dutch would evade war again. We were neutral in WW I and it worked.
We were neutral again so why should we worry? Well, past results do not guarentee success in the
future. On 10 May 1940 the German Army invaded the Netherlands. Some heavy fighting did took place
but it was brief, because on 15 May the Dutch high command signed the unconditional surrender. More
than 2000 Dutch soldiers were killed in action. Also, the historical city centre of Rotterdam laid
in ruins. Nazi Germany threatened to bomb other cities as well, like Utrecht, but luckily that did
not happen. Therefore the beautiful historical hearth of this city was spared. To everyone
visiting the Netherlands I therefore recommend visiting Utrecht as well and not only Amsterdam.
Back to the subject. We in the Netherlands regard ourselves during WW II as a victim. What we see
here a kind of victim mentality. And I don't mean that in a non-legitable way. It was totally
legit, because the Dutch never asked for war and were suddenly overran by a much more powerfull
enemy. At first the occupation was fairly mild. Dutch people weren't seen as inferiour races like
the Slavs. Yet, as the war progressed – Jews were being prosecuted, people were rounded up
for forced labour and resistance activities sprung up – the occupyer became more and more repressive.
Speaking of the resistance, here we can trace a sense of heroïsm amoung the Dutch remembrance of
WW II. Brave members resistance that commited acts of sabotage and assasination against the
nazi occupyer. They risked their lives and if caught were often tortured and executed. Yet,
critical assesments of weather these acts were of strategic value, not to mention the Dutch that
were killed in reprisal actions, you don't see that often. You also see this in Dutch war movies
like Soldaat van Oranje, Zwartboek en Bankier van het Verzet. I recommend you to check these out.
Throughout the years the attitude towards WW II did change. In the first years after
the war most people had a mentality of: shut up about your past trauma,
head down, rebuilt and look forward. In the first two decades after the conflict it was
really black & white. You were either a good Dutchman and were with the resistance or you
were a bad one: you collaborated with the enemy. Statistics show that around 10% of
the Dutch people actively collaborated with the Germans. Around 5% was in the resistance
and the remaing majority adapted to German rule. And even this is a grey area. After WW II girls
that slept with German soldiers were called 'kraut whores' and publicly humiliated. Can
you call these girls collaborators? In later years views about this became for nuanced. In
the past decades more attention is given to the Dutch that suffered at the hands of the Japanese
in the East Asia. The Indonesian archipelago was a Dutch colony – named the Dutch East Indies – that
was overrun by the Japanese Imperial Army early 1942. Its Dutch citizens were interned in Japanese
camps and suffered horrible treatment. Men that had served in the Dutch colonial army were put in
forced labour on different railway constructions. Many of them died there. After WW II Indonesia
became independent and those who survived were shipped home. When in early years they told the
stories oabout their suffering in the Far East they were sometimes met with harsh responses,
like: 'well, at last you guys didn't freeze out there!' Now there is more attention to it.
When I visited Eastern European countries like Russia and Ukraine you basicly see
a whole other picture. Russian and Ukrainian war memorials contains
statue that radiate the idea of blood, sweat and tears. The idea of enormous heroïsm. That
despite the enormous onslaught that these Eastern Europeans faced, they persivered and eventually
defeated the enemy. Here you see images from the enourmous statues in Ukraine's capital of
Kiev and the Polish capital of Warsaw. And compare this to the statue behind me. This statue is much
more modest and less warrior-like. And perhaps that resembles the average Dutch person. The
average Dutch was not a warrior, was not in the resistance, was not a collabator.
It was simple someone who wanted to make its way through the dark times and get out alive.
On 4 May we remember out dead, those who fell during and after WW II. On
5 May we celebrate our freedom on Liberdation Day.