5th of May...we should never forget
Today marks the day when Holland was liberated from the nazis in 1945. I am specifically not saying 'from the Germans' (although the elderly always still do) but from the nazis because this is such a small nuance but such a big difference. The modern society can nog help what their ancestors did, but still have to live with the consequences from that.
Liberation day, and celebrating our freedom although for a lot of people this seems further away than even this year.
So this is 71 years ago already and the parades which always go with this liberation day are getting thinner inhabited by the ones who actually lived through this by the year. But although these parades are not for the sole purpose for the ones who actually survived the war, the human stories which are told live are getting less and less. Still the thought of out freedom is something we should never forget how precious this is.
Every year it always comes up that we should never let something like this happen again ever in history, but the fact is. I really don't think you need that many ingredients to stir the put and get this sort of drama rolling out again. A big economic crisis, people in dispair, a leader with a populistic though and boom..the foundations for a regime have been laid out.
It is an illusion to think we are immune from this at this point in time.
Pixabay
At Steemfest in Krakow in 2018 we visited Auswitz, and it was one of the most impressive things I have ever seen. Although there is also a former camp here in Holland in the region which I have never visited, the idea of the mass scale executions which took place here is really something that gives you chills down your spine.
I don't think anyone could actually visit that place and not be affected by this, and it really is a good reminder to all of us to be humble and see how easily it is to get at that disgusting point again.
A couple of months before this I was in Berlin and I also visited the Wannsee-conferenz building which was also the most awkward thing. This is a beautiful villa in the woods near a lake and here was decided that the nazi regime would turn over to the mass executions of jews. So in this beautiful location a couple guys in suits decided over dinner that millions of people would be gassed, it is just to weird to comprehend. But again...it is always still so close.
I guess the idea of remembering these kinds of wars is a good thing to remind us what power and thinking that one group is better than another can do. Even though I also hear a lot of people talk about that this is already so long ago and if it is still that relevant...Maybe the fact that they say this makes it even more relevant.
When we look at other regimes and what happens behind the scenes there, this also is no winner. Also countries which have parts of anarchy also don't have any winners, because eventually always someone will stand up as a leader, and that doesn't really have the best one. I know I always refer to 'the Walking Dead' when going towards this, but this is the perfect example of what you find on people who are trying to survive and what happens to them as a person in terms of who they become.
It is scary what power can do to people, and how little they care about others all of a sudden. Maybe that is the message which we have to remember on the 5th of May here in Holland, that we should take care of each other and respect each other.
This year there are no celebrations of course due to covid but this doesn't mean we can all think about all the stories which the people have experienced over the World War 2, and other wars and just realize that in general...Our lives are good..in freedom