Liberation
So today we celebrated VE-day: the liberation of the dreaded Nazi's in 1945. Once a yearly holiday, now something to be celebrated once every five years. This is one of those years, with its 70th anniversary. But particularly this year I didn't feel much like celebrating.
Don't get me wrong: I feel a deep rooted gratitude towards all the men and women who fought the Nazi's, at home or abroad, and choke every time I think of all those young men who lost their lives in this humongous conflict. But for the first time I didn't want to watch any of the memorial services that were broadcast on something like seven channels at the same time. Our prime minister, much too young to have had even a delayed second hand experience of the war, speaking about its horrors. The long line of people passing by the memorial to the resistance fighters who were executed on a piece of land near the sea. Every year the same thing. Years ago I used to stand in front of the television set during the two minutes of silence at eight in the evening, in honor of those who died. Now I didn't even get out of my chair.
It's not that I am weary of commemorating this great historical event. I just feel it has gotten into the wrong hands. Every time a young girl must recite a poem, preferably written herself. Every time we see people whose minds are with completely different and unrelated issues, like boat refugees from Africa, IS, supposedly multi culturalism and this deep seated misconception of absolute freedom.
And then there are the festivities to celebrate those supposed freedoms, and the misconception that we are forever freed from the horrors of what conspired during those years leading up to, and during the second world war. I am tired of pointing out now, just as much as then, people are doing on a daily basis things to harm others as part of their job. During the Nuremberg trials it was clearly stated that everyone is responsible for his own actions, regardless of what people higher up the food chain say. Never was it to be allowed to simply say: I was ordered to do so ("Befehl ist Befehl"), and get off scot free. Although policemen and even military personnel who in the heat of battle did things that led to unwarranted deaths, are brought to justice every once in a while, the average functionary can get away with torture easily. And does so on a daily basis. So what is there to celebrate? That we won the fight but lost the war? What does that do to the memory of those who gave it their all?
Why is the only way people seem to be able to feel the preciousness of the liberation, playing music too loud, eating too much and getting tipsy? To me the best way to celebrate the recaptured freedom, is to contemplate what we had, what we gave up and for what, and what we are left with. There is no need to have school children recite anything for this purpose. They are too young to understand anyway, I guess, because most grownups don't either. So who's teaching them? I have a hard enough time try7ing to get my head around it. So why not feature on television someone who does know and explains it so everybody understands? I'd be glued to the tube for that. To hear that there is no absolute freedom, of expression, of religion, to live wherever you choose. Of anything. Even the "pursuit of happiness" is limited by the other guy's freedom.