Veterans, 100 & 101, lighting liberation fire kicks of Liberation Day festivities

In Wageningen, war veterans Mervyn Kersh and Nick Janicki lit the National Liberation Fire around midnight to mark the transition from May 4 to 5. Kersh, 100, from the United Kingdom, and Janicki, 101, from Canada, lit the fire with Mayor Floor Vermeulen of Wageningen on the square in front of Hotel De Wereld, where negotiations on the German capitulation took place 80 years ago.

Before the ceremony, Kersh stated that he had always seen his involvement in D-Day as helping a friend. Like him, Janicki also emphasized that he considers it an honor to light the flame this year—“one that I will never forget.”

After lighting the fire, the Dutch national anthem was played and the National Liberation Fire Relay started, in which a record of over 5,000 relay runners will take the fire with torches to municipalities throughout the country.

Earlier in the evening, there were performances and lectures by Douwe Bob, Maan, Angela Groothuizen, Hans Dagelet, and Sinan Can, among others. Passages from the book Het verhaal van een Duitser 1913-1933 by writer Sebastian Haffner were also read.

The May 5 lecture will also take place in Wageningen on Monday. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk will give that lecture.

The lighting of the Liberation Fire signals the transition from commemorating the Second World War to celebrating the Netherlands’ liberation from the German occupier, with Liberation Day Festivals spread across the country.