May 5, 1945 - we shall remember.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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I would like to add my thanks to you for beginning this thread, Coldfire. The Channel Islands were not only the only part of Britain to be occupied during WWII, but they were among the last parts of Europe to be liberated. We will be celebrating our Liberation Day on the 9th of May, and as usual it will be a holiday and a day of celebration in Guernsey.

Even though I will not be at home for the first time during these celebrations, I will without doubt be thinking of those who suffered under occupation, as well as those who fought and died to liberate them, not just in Guernsey and the other Channel Islands, but all over the world.

Just for the record, I am 19 and share others’ hopes that the many reasons for remembering these events that happened before even my parents were born are still as important to the rest of my generation. I can just about remember the 50th anniversary of Liberation Day and the street parties and parades that went on all day, and I believe that I’llremember it for the rest of my life, and even the joyfullness of that day can be only a fraction of the joy that those who were on the island during the Occupation must have felt at being liberated.

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I’m in the US for four months now and will stay another two. I would have liked to be in the Netherlands today.

So thanks, Coldfire for bringing the feelings of thankfullness and sorrow about the events that took place in WWII and thereafter to the Boards. We will not forget.

And thank you for freeing our country.

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Een volk dat voor tirannen zwicht, [sub][sup](A people that gives in to tirants)[/sup][/sub]
zal meer dan lijf en goed verliezen… [sub][sup](will lose more than body and goods…)[/sup][/sub]

Dan dooft het licht. [sub][sup](That is when the lights grow dim.)[/sup][/sub]

(Poem by Henk van Randwijk, founder of underground resistance newspaper Vrij Nederland. The words appear on a monument in Amsterdam, at the Weteringcircuit, opposite the old Heineken brewery.)

Thank you, Shayna, for beating me to it. :slight_smile:

Rod Hill, if I may ask, in what capacity will you be attending the service in Belgium? What a splendid initiative. The WWI Battles of Ypres were probably among the most gruesome examples of warfare, of all time. Nameless or not, these men deserve all the honour you can give them.

Shill, the Channel Islands indeed have an interesting war history, don’t they? And it’s all but forgotten that parts of the UK were occupied by the Nazis. I guess perhaps the film The Others brought that fact to light once more, but it’s quite obscure information outside the UK. Which is a damn shame. I hope to visit your wonderful island one day, it looks gorgeous from what I’ve seen about it on TV!

Goodbeem, welcome aboard! I must have missed your posts until now. It’s strange isn’t it - a country with remarkably little patriotism, so united over this one issue. Whatever your stance in modern politics, you don’t mess with the 4th and 5th of May.

You know, I almost had forgotten it was the 4th of May yesterday. As you tend to do on weekends, you’re not really aware of the date as much as on a weekday. I had visited a friend in Utrecht to watch the F1 Grand Prix, and was riding home towards Amsterdam on my motorbike, using the back roads alongside the Vecht river rather than the busy A2 motorway.

I stopped in the tiny village of Nieuwersluis (near Breukelen) to snap some pictures of the gorgeous buildings and houses lining the Vecht river in that beautiful area. As I took one of my pictures, it suddenly dawned on me.

A nearby house was flying the Dutch flag at half-mast. It was May 4.

That’s the real freedom of it all. I was riding around, not even thinking about it. It totally caught me by surprise. The fact that we can do this, that we can live our everyday lives without thinking about our freedom being at stake - we owe it all to those brave men who gave their best, and in some cases, their all.

At 8 PM last night, I was online with my girlfriend, who is American. I found a web feed that covered the commemoration at Dam Square. We watched it together, even though we’re half a world apart. It was very cool to share that.

Today, on May 5, we celebrate our freedom. Thank you, sons and daughters of Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Your blood was exchanged for my freedom, and I can never repay you.

[sub]P.S. I couldn’t resist - though not much of a patriot, I decided to wear an orange tie to work today.[/sub]

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This thread is one of five or six I keep bookmarked. If I could do do with only one, this would be that one.

265

Resurrecting this thread was on my to-do list for last night or today. I’m glad people beat me to it. Next time you folks hear people complaining about the drek on the internet, tell them about this thread.

CJ

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[quote]
It’s strange isn’t it - a country with remarkably little patriotism, so united over this one issue. Whatever your stance in modern politics, you don’t mess with the 4th and 5th of May. [\quote]

The fifth of May is a strange day for me. For some reason I seem to get up early and for the last couple years, find this thread, and read it top to bottom. Then I think of the somber introspective celebration of freedom I have always imagined that goes on. Meanwhile at the same time I live in a neighboor hood that is probably 80% populated within a couple generations of immigrating from Mexico. And I can already hear the car horns being honked for Cinco de Mayo(which might have somthing to do with the getting up early:) ). It’s another type of celebration of freedom,But so boisterous and energetic.
I always wished I could celebrate freedom in the loud, energetic life-to-the-fullest kind of way, but my personality as an over-thinker always makes me end up in the somber remembrance way. But the method of celebrating freedom doesn’t really matter, as long as take a little time every once in a while to consciously acknowledge that we all have great freedoms, and that those freedoms are due to the actions of people of flesh and blood.

267

Coldie, I and a colleague from work will be there semi-officially; we will be visiting a former boss who is superintendent at Beaumont-Hamel Memorial and Vimy Memorial in France. She will be officiating at the reburial in Belgium during our visit, and has asked us to join her. I just feel it is a debt we owe, and can never really repay.

I wish I had six weeks instead of six days on the continent, though. I will have barely enough time to explore the area around Vimy Ridge; and one and a half days at Ypres is a shame, but I am glad to have made it at last.

I remember visiting the Netherlands in the mid-1970s as a kid, with my late father; even though he was only 16 himself when the war ended, too young to have served in the Canadian army, we were treated like Kings–just because we were Canadian! It really made an impression on me.

I will end this by remembering my old friend Bill Nicholson, Winnipeg Grenadiers, who died this February. Bill was born in 1917. His father died when Bill was 4 years old, the result of being gassed at Passchendaele. Bill was captured in Hong Kong in 1941, and endured nearly 4 years of starvation, abuse and slave labour in the shipyards and mines of Japan. Yet he never gave in to bitterness or hatred. He even shared the precious food dropped to the prisoners by the USAAF (after the Japanese guards vanished in August 1945) with a starving Japanese family, and remained close friends with the family for decades. He was always, and in all ways a gentle man.

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wolfman, our 4th of May commemoration of the dead is sober and dignified. The 5th of May is actually quite festive: a celebration of freedom. Rock concerts in all cities, people partying in the streets.

Rod Hill, should you ever make it back to the Netherlands, be sure to come around the 5th of May, and be sure to bring a maple leaf flag. You’ll be treated like a king again. :slight_smile:

Your friend Bill sounds like a remarkable man - it’s so sad that they’re all slowly passing away. Inevitable, but sad.
Good luck in Belgium!

269

If the OP started appearing as spam, it ould be the one spam I wouldn’t mind getting.

270

Would that this thread became as popular across the internet as “The Horror of Blimps”. This is one that certainly deserves to be spread around!

I took pictures of the candles burning in our window last night, they were so pretty. As soon as I get a chance, I’ll upload them to the web page I made in honor Coldfire’s grandfather, as an additional tribute to him and to all those who sacrificed, be they military or civilian, so that the atrocities of WWII would come to an end.

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Coldfire that was the most beautiful thing I have read in the few months I’ve been here.

I would like to honor all those who sacrificed so much for freedom - among them, my grandfather, who came home from the First World War but left his sanity in the trenches.

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I am so pleased to see this thread come by again. It is wonderful to think of the heroism and selflessness that people are capable of at their best.

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Perhaps a somewhat forgotten group - those who made it home alive and relatively well, in the physical sense… but who had the mental scars for life.

I’d rather not go into detail since it’s not my place to tell, but over the past years, I’ve seen an exact example of this phenomenon, or at least the result thereof. Guys who gave their best, only to become socially paralysed for life, with terrible consequences for their family and friends.

The obscure, low-profile tragedies of war. The effects carry on to this day.

You can’t blame them, you can’t fault them… you can just feel pity. :frowning:

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Yeah, I have that too, I sometimes see people celebrating life, even at the 4th of may, when all I can do is being contemplative. Perhaps freedom has, at least for some of us, the bitter connotation of the lives lost to attain it. Innocence lost.
Yesterday I wondered in what way you’d honor that generation best, contemplative and serene or loud. I thought of starting a thread about it, but both ways now seem just as good to me.

And Coldfire, thanks for the welcome :slight_smile:

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I think the current balance works, personally. Remember those who have fallen one day, and celebrate their achievements the next.

Yes, there’s a sharp contrast, it’s a night and day difference. But at the same time, we should never forget that their sacrifices bring us joy and happiness to this day.

When I raise my glass on May 5, smiling and partying with my friends, I do so because I can. And I can because of all those heroic young men (mostly Canadian, in my particular case). I’m not being disrespectful by showig joy on this day - I’m celebrating the greatness of their achievements.

I wonder if that even makes sense to anyone without “Je Maintiendrai” on their passwords - but it’s how I see it.

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Excuse my horrendous spelling - it is quite obvious I raised one glass too many tonight. :slight_smile:

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On a very similar note, if I may: Aftenposten has a series of photos on its website, archive photos from May 8, 1945 and the summer following. The captions are in English.

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Wow, what beautiful pictures. Thanks, flodnak!

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I was born on May 5, a very long time after WW II of course… I didn’t know of the significance of this day to so many people before I read this thread, and now I always remember it on my birthday.

This was one of the earliest posts I read on this board, and I’ve been lurking for a long time. It loses nothing on repeated readings, and this remains one of the most beautiful threads I’ve ever read.

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I’m very glad this thread has been resurrected. Cheers to you Coldy!