5^th OF MAY, LIBERATION DAY

World War 2 is overshadowing the first days of May every year. In the Netherlands this goes especially for the fourth and the fifth.

On the evening of the 4^th the country mourns the dead and on the fifth we celebrate our regained freedom and democracy.

The dates are open for dispute.

Officialy the German Wehrmacht capitulated on the 7^th of May to the Allies. Due to their timezone, the ceremony was held on the 8^th. On the 9^th of May the Russian celebrate their victory over Nazism with big parades.

The 4^th and 5^th of May refer to the Dutch situation at the end of the war. The south of Holland has been liberated. The Wehrmacht uses the rivers Rhine and Waal as their line of defense. During a winter of Hunger (44-45) the Dutch in the western provinces were starved to death. A warcrime of enormous proportions and to be compared with starvation of the Jews in the Warschau-gettho. But on a far bigger scale.

On the 5^th the Allies start negotiations with the remaining Nazi-forces, who were cut of from the “Heimat”. Officialy a peace-treaty was reached on the 5^th in a hotel in the town of Wageningen.

Seen from the perspective of military hierarchy the German commander did not have the competence or power to sign such an agreement. The treaty was not valid. On the 7^th inhabitants of Amsterdam partied to celebrate their liberation.

German soldiers shot at them and several died. The war was not over, yet.