NOS 75 years of liberation
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We'll meet again
“I would have never guessed that I would land here without firing a single round”, an American general said after landing in Tokyo. After the atomic bombs and the declaration of war from Russia it all happened in a fraction of the expected time. The Americans…
Exceptional video from the Dutch Indies
Now all the stories for our website have been written the editors now shift their attention towards the last galleys of the book. E-mails are going back and forth on the best picture selection and finishing touches on the texts. Halfway October is the planned…
Japan surrenders
In the Dutch-East-Indies the news is not yet broadcasted. Forced laborers working on the death track passing Sumatra do not know that they have finally been freed when the track is officially opened. The Pakan Baroe train track was build to transport military…
'The city of Nagasaki was gone'
These geopolitical developments do not concern the victims in Nagasaki when the city gets wiped off the map. They are simply trying to survive. Dutch prisoners of war are among the crowds leaving the city, trying to escape the inferno. "The entire city is gon…
Shadow of victory: Hiroshima
There are two place names that always invoke the devastation of World War Two. The first is Auschwitz, the other Hiroshima. Prelude to the end of the war the total destruction of this city with the power of a weapon unknown to the world. The radiation of the …
Mokusatsu
In the German city of Potsdam, where the Big Three meet, a personnel change takes place. Prime minister Churchill has been defeated in the elections. His successor Attlee takes his place at the summit.The abrupt departure of Churchill would not be definite: i…
Sorrow for Anne, relief for Sieg
Around the same time Keetje Maandag received bad news about her children. According to the Red Cross they had not survived Bergen-Belsen. Desperately searching for more information she received an envelope from a family member from New York. It contained the …
Artist as soldier
No other conflict up to that time was covered by modern media as the Second World War was. Film cameras captured Nazi mass meetings, radio reports brought the Blitz-attacks on London into people's homes, even in Auschwitz pictures were made to document the cr…
Worthless banknotes, rolled up Night's Watch
Another picture that stands out is that of Rembrandt's Night's Watch rolled up and stored as one would do to a carpet. The painting returns from Maastricht after being dragged around for years. The most famous painting in Dutch culture has survived the war in…
'Amsterdam knows nothing of Sobibor'
Amsterdam takes three days to celebrate liberation. The day before the parade for example the Euterpestraat is renamed the Gerrit van der Veenstraat, after the murdered resistance hero. The old name had been tainted by the SD-headquarters located in this stre…
Jewish traitor, Jewish saviors
After the war she was the only woman amongst the 39 people executed because of their acts during the war. On January 14th 1948, 42 year old Ansstood before the firing squad, on a remote location near Fort Bijlmer. Her request for a pardon was declined by quee…
No warm welcome
Upon returning home the inhabitants of the Betuwe discovered their houses had suffered for months in the front lines. “Death lurking around every corner”. The area was one of the heaviest hit regions, as can be seen on a list that the government had written u…
The entire country is finally liberated
The fanatics that surrendered on the island were told they would be treated as POW's and returned to Germany, but that was a lie. They were locked up as collaborators to await their trail. The Netherlands will have to process thousands of traitors: for instan…
Returning home
It leads to moving reunions, as for Lien Brilleslijper, who his reunited with her husband Eberhard during a piano performance. Elsewhere, relatives wait in vain for the return of relatives: Otto Frank will not find anyone in Amsterdam.Another large migration …
The damage becomes clear
Take for example the destruction in the city of Rotterdam, where not much has been done after the bombardment of 1940. The reconstruction costs were put on a total of 600 million guilders. On top of the destruction done to central Rotterdam people also have t…
Comings and goings
In the opposite direction a stream of freed Dutch people wait in the east, wanting to go home. Jews, forced workers and political prisoners hoping for relief. In camp Dachau a group of men decide to take matters into their own hands and take the bus back home…
Aftermath
The search for (alleged) collaborators accompanies the festivities. Lynch mobs can be avoided, but everywhere Dutch people on the "wrong side of history" are humiliated and abused. No wonder German soldiers do not find the idea of being disarmed by the Dutch …
LIBERATED!
1821 days of occupation. Eight months of battle. And an uncountable number of sacrifices. But it is finally over: Nazi-Germany has surrendered. The Netherlands has been liberated. Welcome to the 36th issue of our newsletter.The week starts with a tense calm. …
Manna from heaven
The noise must have been deafening. Enprmous bombers flying so low that the pilots can be seen in their cockpits. With joy and hope people look up to these war machines: they used to bring destruction, but now operation Manna brings food from the sky.The Alli…
The terrors of the camps
In Sachsenhausen, most of the guards have already fled when the Russians liberate the camp. Hardened soldiers are shocked by the terrible conditions in which prisoners were held here. Hundreds of severely weakened men and women still die after the liberation.…