Worthy Christian News > World News > Netherlands Moment of Silence Without Antisemitic Incidents Amid Prayers

Netherlands Moment of Silence Without Antisemitic Incidents Amid Prayers

Netherlands Moment of Silence Without Antisemitic Incidents Amid Prayers

By Worthy News’ Stefan J. Bos and Johan Th. Bos reporting from the Netherlands

AMSTERDAM/AMSTELVEEN (Worthy News)—While alerted Christians prayed for them as far away as Indonesia and other nations, the Dutch held a live televised commemoration for those killed in World War Two and other armed conflicts, without antisemitic incidents.

At 8 pm local time, there were two minutes of silence with several thousand people, including the royal family, standing quietly in pouring rain at Dam Square near the Royal Palace of Amsterdam, the capital.

There was concern that pro-Palestine activists, who targeted Jewish individuals, including students, a rabbi, an artist, and Holocaust survivors, may interrupt the ceremony.

Holocaust survivor Phia Baruch told Worthy News earlier there had been “fear within the Jewish community about possible civil war.”

Some 102,000 Dutch Jewish people died in the Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, along with Sinti people and others the Nazis didn’t like.

Yet there was a sigh of relief when King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima were among those singing the Dutch anthem at 08:02 pm.

The royal couple was among the many laying wreaths for those who passed away in the horrors of recent wars.

REMEMBERING THE FALLEN

Youngsters publicly remembered fallen family members and survivors.

In nearby Amstelveen, a key suburb with world headquarters of major companies, Mayor Tjapko Poppens seemed visibly moved by the hundreds turning up to remember those who died quietly.

The two minutes of silence at Amstelveen’s famed war monument ‘To those who fell,’ in a public park, C.P. Broersepark, passed without incident.

Additional police had been deployed in Amstelveen, which was one of several municipalities raising the Israeli flag after Hamas killed some 1,200 people on October 7.

Amstelveen, which has a thriving Jewish community, had been anxious about antisemitic incidents after a mother here was threatened by three women because her daughter serves in the Israeli army.

While raindrops fell as tears, and perhaps blessings, from heaven, Mayor Poppens spoke and remembered the many who died.

Amstelveen, located close to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, experienced severe bombings, the mayor recalled. “And unfortunately that was just the beginning.” Before he spoke, city poet Nikki Szofia, student Angelina Kotova and the children’s mayor read poems they had written themselves.

PERSONAL STORIES

Poppens said that every family has its own story about the occupation, resistance, hiding, fear of raids, deportations, arbitrariness of the occupier, working under duress in Germany, bombers, air raid shelters, curfew and eating tulip bulbs in the war’s “hunger winter” when many died.
Yet younger generations also suffer from the scars of the war, he noticed, referring to the ongoing war in Ukraine and the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas massacre in Israel.

“World events have made us realize that our democracy and freedom are more fragile than we thought,” he said. “On a day like today we reflect on what war and occupation mean and how grateful we can be that we live in a free country. A country where you can be who you are and are free to express yourself.”

However, “In our current society and political debate, pointing fingers at certain groups and insulting others sometimes seems to have become ‘normal’. That is worrying and we must all combat it.”
Poppens stressed that the stories from the war teach society what can happen if people no longer fight against antisemitism and other forms of hatred.

What started with signs “forbidden for Jews” at the beginning of the war ended with mass murder in the Holocaust, he said. It seems to be becoming normal for people to insult certain groups in society and in political debate, the mayor said. “Let us work together to ensure that intimidation and threats do not become the new ‘normal’,” Poppens warned.

Christians in Indonesia, which gained independence from the Netherlands after World War Two, told Worthy News they had been praying for a peaceful ceremony and the Jewish people.