Remembrance

I make a point of observing Remembrance Sunday in November. There is another Remembrance Day, in May.

On 8th May 1945, Nazi-Germany capitulated to the Allied forces in Europe. Three days earlier, the Nazis had surrendered in the Netherlands, following a brutal occupation of just short of 5 years. During that time, more than 105,000 Jews had been deported and killed in concentration camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau, Dachau and Bergen-Belsen. Their fate is epitomised by Anne Frank. And by the fact that many synagogues in Holland were repurposed after the war, as there was nobody left to worship there.

Tomorrow evening, 4th May, at 8pm local time, two minutes' silence will be observed across the Netherlands. People will stop, trains and buses will halt, bells will toll and a bugler will sound the Last Post. In memory of those who gave their all for their country.

I post a video of the bells of the Dom Cathedral in Cologne in Germany. We forgive - if we can. We do not forget - what led to the atrocity that was the holocaust.