Evil begins with preconceptions: Rotterdam mayor gives Remembrance speech

Thousands of people packed on to the Dam to remember those who died. Photo: Graham Dockery
Thousands of people packed on to the Dam to remember those who died. Photo: Graham Dockery

The Netherlands remembered its war dead on Wednesday with hundreds of wreath-laying ceremonies all over the country.

Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutleb gave this year’s May 4 reading in Amsterdam in which he spoke of his unawareness of the war until he came to the Netherlands as a teenager.

‘The stories teach us that evil begins with preconceptions and humiliation,’ he said. ‘Jews had to wear a star, their children could not go to their schools. Roma and Sinti, gay people, people with learning disabilities, they harmed no one but there was no place for them in Nazi Germany.’

‘And so a country falls prey to gut feelings, to ill-considered emotions which subvert society,’ he said. These are feelings, Aboutaleb said, which can pave the way to hate, violence and eventually murder. To this very day.’

King

In Amsterdam, king Willem-Alexander and queen Maxima were among those who laid wreaths at the war memorial on the city’s Dam square.

For the first time this year, films were shown on a large video screen, explaining who was laying the wreath and why.

Prime minister Mark Rutte attended several events around the country. In the afternoon he was at the war graves cemetery in Loenen, which was founded 70 years ago.

Sacrifice

The cementery contains the bodies of civilians who died during World War II as well as Dutch soldiers killed in peace keeping missions since then.

In a short speech, Rutte said the Dutch should never forget the sacrifice made by those who had died in war. Their stories, he said, ‘deserve to be told’.

It is important to remember those who had died every year, the prime minister said, because this ‘keeps the past alive’.

Freedom, the prime minister said, is the ‘freedom to be who you are and to make your own choices’.

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