Background

The first 4th May commemoration of the day in Amsterdam traditionally takes place at the Nieuwe Ooster cemetery. At 10am, hundreds of Amsterdammers gather here for a silent march. Participants in this official municipal commemoration include military personnel and representatives of remembrance organisations. Those present carry flowers and wreaths. The mayor walks at the head of the procession that passes six memorials. They recall the struggle, resistance, persecution and loss of life in the years 1940-1945. Together, they reflect on how war and oppression affected people then and now.

The march starts at the Geuzen grave of four resistance fighters of the first hour. The men were arrested in 1942, taken away and murdered in Berlin. After the war, their bodies were reburied at this spot. The Camp Buchenwald monument honours the victims of this concentration camp, which was located near the German city of Weimar. Dutch prisoners, resistance fighters, conscientious objectors, Jews and Sinti and Roma were also deported to this camp. Many prisoners had to do heavy work in camps in the surrounding area. Camp Buchenwald became overcrowded and living conditions deteriorated as the days went on. Eventually, over 56,000 people would die in the camp.  On 11 April 1945, US army units liberated Buchenwald. They found 21,000 prisoners, including 1,000 children under 14. An estimated 3,300 Dutch people were imprisoned in the notorious concentration camp for short or long periods of time. A large number of them were transferred to other camps. At least 497 Dutch people died in Buchenwald.

The Buchenwald monument, which takes the form of a tombstone with the inscription ‘People be vigilant’, was unveiled in 1955. The urn on the monument contains earth from various Nazi concentration camps in Europe, brought together at Buchenwald and then buried at the site of this monument.

After the Buchenwald monument, the procession continues past the monument commemorating the eight soldiers who died in Amsterdam and its surroundings in battle during the German invasion in May 1940. It then pauses at the grave of six men shot dead by a German firing squad in 1943. The victims were part of the communist resistance and were engaged in making the illegal publication De Waarheid. Communist resistance fighters are also commemorated at the next monument that the procession visits. The Monument to the Resistance Fighters, crafted by renowned sculptor Hilde Krop, was placed here immediately after the war. On a tall column is a statue of a woman with a flying flag. The names of 18 communist resistance fighters that were put to death are inscribed on the base. Most of them took part in the February 1941 strike and were involved in making the resistance newspaper De Waarheid. After liberation, their bodies were taken to the Nieuwe Ooster. On behalf of the Amsterdam municipality, the mayor lays a wreath here.

the silent march ends at the back of the cemetery, at the Allied Soldiers’ Field of Honour, which explains the presence of uniformed representatives at the commemoration. Over 300, mostly young Allied soldiers are buried at this site. They came from Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Poland and fell on Dutch soil during the war. Many of these soldiers were crew members of bombers shot down by German anti-aircraft guns.