Celebration of Liberation. At 11:30 all the bells of the city chime in unison. This is a call to remember the end of WWII, when the Allied Forces marched over the border in claimed victory and German occupation of the Netherlands ended. There is no other inclusion in this celebration. There is much wrapped up in this moment. The Dutch hold the worst record of Western European countries in aiding and abetting in the deportation of Jews, Roma etc to the extermination camps in the East.* The Jewish population of Amsterdam was decimated. The story is made worse by the lack of retribution to the few survivors of the horrors when they returned to Amsterdam to reclaim their lives and property. Do the elderly Dutch think of this today? Does this make relations with their neighbor the Germans jagged for everyone, young and old? Does it have any effect on the populous as a whole? Or does it roll off their backs as water on a duck.
Learned a new fact. The capitulation of the Netherlands came after the destructive bombing of Rotterdam. The Germans threatened to destroy Den Haag, Utrecht and Amsterdam in the same manner if the government did not accept occupation.
Not new fact: there is debate about the absence of the Royal House during WWII, including visits the Queen made to the US while the subjects were under German command. Both sides of the question hold adamant positions.
*https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/go-in-depth/netherlands-greatest-number-jewish-victims-western-europe/