Live Remembrance Day | High chance of rain during commemoration on Dam Square

Hallo en welkom in dit liveblog. Hier houd ik, Robbert van der Linde, je op de hoogte van de ontwikkelingen rond Dodenherdenking.

• Nederlandse oorlogsslachtoffers herdacht
• Nationale Herdenking op de Dam
• Extra maatregelen uit vrees voor verstoring
• Om 20.00 uur is Nederland twee minuten stil

Hoe beleef jij Dodenherdenking? Stuur je video of foto naar [email protected] en laat het ons weten.

High chance of showers during National Remembrance Day on Dam Square
There is a good chance that it will rain tonight during the National Commemoration on Dam Square. Heavy showers are forecast in North Holland, Flevoland, Utrecht and Gelderland around 8 p.m.

During Remembrance Day, the temperature on Dam Square will be around 11 degrees and there will be little wind.

The weather around Remembrance Day is more positive for Overijssel, Drenthe, Friesland, Groningen and the Wadden Islands. In those provinces it will remain dry in most places and temperatures between 13 and 15 degrees are expected.

Public transport and air traffic are at a standstill during Remembrance Day
NS stops all trains for two minutes at 8 p.m. City transport companies stop trams, buses and metros and air traffic also takes the National Remembrance Day into account.

Road users are advised to look for a parking space and especially not to park on the hard shoulder next to the highway.

The additional measures for the National Commemoration on Dam Square:

• This year there is room for 10,000 people. Other years there were often double that number.
• Visitors had to register via an online reservation system.
• Visitors had to select an entrance and time slot. Within one day, all 10,000 places for the National Commemoration were taken.
• The police will search at the three entrance points of Dam Square.

Read more about the measures here

Measures due to fear of disruption
Out of fear of protests or disruptions due to the war in Gaza, Amsterdam is taking extra measures during National Remembrance. For example, fewer people are allowed on Dam Square, flags are not allowed and all attendees are searched. Amplifiers and boards are also not allowed.

D National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security (NCTV), the police emphasize that they believe there is a chance of spontaneous protests or disruptions, but that the chance of an attack is no greater than in previous years.

This year’s commemoration cannot be seen separately from Gaza
On May 4, the emphasis is on commemorating the Second World War and the wars in which the Netherlands has since become involved. But Remembrance Day cannot be separated from the war in Gaza this year, writes our reporter Afran Groenewoud.

Read more here

Who and what do we commemorate?
On May 4, the Netherlands officially commemorates “all – civilians and military personnel – who were killed or murdered in the Kingdom of the Netherlands or anywhere else in the world; both during the Second World War and the war of independence in Indonesia, as well as in war situations and during subsequent peace operations.”

After the Second World War, Remembrance Day was the moment when people remembered those who had died in the war. Since 1961, the victims of war situations and peace operations in which the Netherlands was involved after the Second World War have also been commemorated.