News
Celebrating freedom in times of corona
May 4 and 5, we commemorate and celebrate in a different way than we are used to because of the corona crisis. It is a tradition that students of Wageningen University are involved in the organization of May 4 and 5, as a storyteller, wreath-layer or volunteer at the liberation festival. It is also different for them this year. How do we celebrate this year and how 75 years ago?
On May 4, board members of Transvaal student militia have a long tradition of laying a wreath at the national war memorial on the Grebbeberg every year on Remembrance Day. Even though the commemoration ceremony and the celebrations are cancelled because of the coronavirus outbreak, Transvaal members are enquiring as to whether they might be allowed to lay a wreath after all.
Jaenet ter Schure (23, master student of Plant Sciences and Plant Biotechnology) is one of the organizers of Kabaal am Gemaal, one of the podia at the Liberation Festival. We are weighing up whether we can hold a scaled-down version of Kabaal am Gemaal in the autumn. That is if the coronavirus situation allows it by that time, of course.’
Ceres-lid Lukas Golterman zou in de middag van 4 mei het verhaal vertellen van een aantal Wageningse verzetsstrijders die een overval pleegden op het gemeentehuis om het bevolkingsregister te stelen. ‘Helaas is het door corona nu onmogelijk om samen te herdenken’, zegt Golterman. ‘Desondanks staan we toch stil bij 4 en 5 mei en we gaan zorgen dat het verhaal volgend jaar weer kan worden verteld.’
On 4 May, Ceres member Lukas Golterman would have been telling the story of a group of Wageningen members of the resistance who invaded the city hall to steal the population register. ‘Sadly, the coronavirus makes it impossible to commemorate it together,’ says Golterman. ‘Nevertheless, we shall find a way to mark 4 and May and we shall make sure the story can be told again next year.’
Liberation Wageningen 1945
Not many photos were taken of Wageningen celebrating at the time of the Liberation itself; hardly anyone was left after the town had been evacuated in October 1944. The celebrations that we see here were in August 1945, not on 5 May.
What RAF-pilots saw during the liberation
The Library is commemorating the Dutch liberation with a small online exhibition. The exhibition contains 34 aerial photographs and some details of these photographs. The series starts with a few items about the beginning of World War II, and focuses on events that took place from September 1944 to May 1945.