Sound of silence...

Today, Memorial Day, something I definitely want to Blip about.

May 4th is the day we commemorate all Dutch war victims across the country . To all those who died during the Second World War or were killed . Commemorated The Second World War is the heart of the National Memorial. That was, and will remain. At the National Memorial all Dutch war victims are commemorated , including the more than 100,000 Jewish victims and Sinti and Roma who have been followed up and killed . As also killed civilians , soldiers, resistance fighters in the Netherlands and in Southeast Asia .
We also commemorate the Dutch soldiers after World War II were killed in the commitment to peace and freedom around the world since 1961. In World War II is a major motivation for the Netherlands to actively engage in international peace operations . As It is for that reason that Dutch soldiers killed in the commitment to peace and freedom are remembered . Elsewhere in the world on May 4 That does not alter the fact that the Second World War, the foundation of the National Memorial .

Poem read out at the Dam in Amsterdam:

The silent witness
The tree on the rails
Surrounded by barbed wire
Towered above the guard house
Rooted in the soil of misery

The tree heard the muffled booms
Smoke fog of fear
Saw a hopeless way
Despaired an endless struggle

Comforting the child with grief
Embracing the woman in despair
Encouragingly, the man without a view
Protecting them without shelter

Leaves whisper the memory
Branches tell the story
The bark relieves pain
The roots absorb the tears

The tree tells the story of when
It is notched and will never forget

(Nienke Woltmeijer)