WWII

Graves, walls and the chapel of the Second World War cemetery in Mierlo were vandalized overnight. A massive swastika was painted on the inner wall of the chapel, and 'MH17 lie' was written on the outside wall in large black letters. The white gravestones in the British plot were also vandalized, Omroep Brabant reports.

This is the second swastika to appear in the Mierlo War Cemetery in a week, a person present at the cemetery said to the broadcaster. Another one was spray painted there last week. It had just been removed when the new vandalism occurred. 

The 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands at the end of World War 2 is still over eight months away, and on Friday, Prime Minister Mark Rutte was scheduled to honor Canadian war veteran Don White at the parliament complex in The Hague. The two met face-to-face in April at the Keukenhof where a new tulip was named in honor of the Canadian.

Dutch Navy ship Zr. Ms. Zierikzee cleared away five naval mines from the North Sea this week. The explosives were found during preparatory work for new offshore wind farm Borssele Windfarm, which will be located 25 miles from Vlissingen, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

Construction on the wind farm will start early in October. Survey ships found the explosives while preparing the site for construction to begin.

The victims of the Second World War in the former Dutch East Indies were commemorated in the building of the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, on Wednesday. The presidents of the Eerste Kamer and Tweede Kamer, Jan Anthonie Bruijn and Khadija Arib, placed a wreath at the memorial plaque in the building, NOS reports.

The commemoration consisted of a short ceremony, with speeches by Arib and others, and a minute of silence.

The construction of a Holocaust Monument of Names on Weesperstraat in Amsterdam can continue, the court in Amsterdam ruled on Tuesday. Local residents objected to the monument, complaining that it is too large and should rather be built somewhere else, but the court rejected these objections, RTL Nieuws reports. 

The memorial will contain the names of 102 thousand Jewish, Sinti and Romani people who were deported in the Second World War and who have no grave. The names will be shown on walls arranged in a maze-like formation. The monument was designed by Daniel Libeskind.

Wednesday would have been Anne Frank's 90th birthday. The Jewish Dutch girl, whose name and diary have become a symbol for the atrocities committed in the Second World War and the call for an end to anti-Semitism and prejudice, was commemorated in various ways throughout the world.

Two of Anne's classmates, 89-year-old Albert Gomes de Mesquita and 90-year-old Jacqueline van Maarsen, spent the day at Anne's former home on Merwedeplein 37-2 in Amsterdam. There they spoke to school children of various ages, RTL Nieuws reports.

YouTube removed the Regionaal Archief Alkmaar video channel over "hate speech". The archive channel featured video footage of the Second World War and other archive footage of Alkmaar and its surroundings. The removal may have to do with the fact that Nazi symbols like swastikas can be seen on the WWII footage, NH Nieuws reports. The channel now seems to be back online. 

The new Netflix program “Historical Roasts” has riled up some people in the Netherlands, for its episode featuring a satirical banquet of Anne Frank. The 15-year-old Holocaust victim was portrayed by comedian Rachel Feinstein in the episode, where Frank was made fun of, and also mocked the others on stage at the end of the show.

“Us Jews always get through the pain with laughter. If we don’t laugh, we cry,” said host Jeffrey Ross. “So with that in mind, please enjoy the Roast of Anne Frank, and the end of my career,” he said in the show’s introduction.

On Tuesday Rotterdam commemorated the 79th anniversary of the Rotterdam Blitz, the German bombardment of the city during the Second World War. "We are still for two minutes. Out of respect for the biggest sacrifice that a person can make: his or her life", Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb said about the two minutes of silence. "They did that for our freedom. We walk in their footsteps."

Over 20 thousand people are expected to attend the National Commemoration of Remembrance Day in Amsterdam on Saturday evening. Attendees include King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima and Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

Gelderland has at least 200 locations that can be considered 'offender heritage' from the Second World War, according to the first ever extensive historical study into offender heritage, De Gelderlander reports. The "Laden Heritage" list includes locations like the Seyss-Inquart bunker in Apeldoorn, Sicherheitsdienst (SD) office in Arnhem, prison De Kruisberg in Doetinchem, the Mussert Wall in Lunteren, Jewish labor camps, and NSB children's homes, according to the newspaper.