Indies commemoration on the Dam: “They also did not count, that was war war”
This morning was the commemoration of the liberation of the former Dutch East Indies on Dam Square. Deputy Mayor Hester van Buren spoke in her speech about the difficult time after the capitulation and how the war developed in the Netherlands. Later, they were the first to display a wreath from the municipality of Amsterdam.
During the commemoration, the Dutch East Indies were commemorated. In Amsterdam that happens on Dam Square, for the first time since the outbreak of the corona virus, this is possible again with the public. Normally that happens in front of the National Monument, but this is resurrection this year it took place in front of the Royal Palace.
The National Monument on Dam Square is a special place for Indisch Dutch, in addition to an urn with soil from eleven Dutch provinces, there is also an urn bricked in with soil from Indonesia at the back of the monument.
Initiator Peggy Stein told in 2020 AT 5 O’CLOCK that the purpose of the memorial is to put that urn in there to recover. “At least the history behind the urn, the war cemeteries where we planned, which we were very happy to discuss. That is here, it is bricked in here, so that is very important to us.”
The commemoration is every year on August 15, because the Japanese surrendered on this day in 1945. World War II had officially ended in the Kingdom of the Netherlands on every continent. “Although that may have officially been the end of practice, that was not the case at all,” said Deputy Mayor Van Buren during her speech.
“Peace and freedom were still a long way off in the Dutch East Indies. There was even a special bloody time,” continued the deputy mayor. “A struggle for independence, deliberately through racist violence, purges and also through brutal intervention by the Dutch government.”
“Painful and embarrassing”
The deputy mayor told about how the war in the Dutch East Indies ‘actually never ends for many people’. “Many displaced back to the Netherlands. They had great difficulty continuing to live in that strange place, coldly treated and haunted by often, often bittersweet memories.”
According to Van Buren, for a long time these people did not get ‘a full place’ in history. “Perhaps out of indifference, or because it does not stick to the Dutch self-image about the war. Men have if that war did not count, because it was not here. That was painful: for the execution and their loved ones. But it was also shameful.”
“Fortunately, we now know better. And we also know more,” said Van Buren, who refers, among other things, to events such as the Japanese occupation, the camps, the survival struggle of the migrants and the comfort women. “About the suffering of Indonesians, Moluccans, Indo-Europeans, Europeans, Papuans, the Jewish-Indian and Chinese-Indonesian community. But also about hunger, forced labour, violence, humiliation and terror.”
Interest
“More than two million Dutch people now have an Indonesian family history,” said the deputy mayor. According to Van Buren, interest in this history is increasing. “Especially among the younger generations. You can see this in the interest in commemorations like this and expressions on social media. More and more Dutch young people are discovering their origins and are becoming aware of their contribution to the culturally rich and diverse society.”
Tonight is the National Indies Commemoration in The Hague at the Indies Monument. For the first time, the commemoration will be held in the evening. The presidents of the Senate and the House of Representatives and Prime Minister Mark Rutte are present. The commemoration will be broadcast on NPO 1 at 7 p.m.