On Tuesday the 4th of May 2021, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the United Kingdom will broadcast the annual Remembrance Ceremony of World War II (Dodenherdenking) on Facebook.
Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, the annual ceremony at the Netherlands Field of Honour at Mill Hill Cemetery will be kept small. The Dutch Embassy in the UK will share a video of the ceremony via www.facebook.com/dutchembassyuk. The video will be placed online on 4 May 2021, 18.55 British Summer Time.
Two minutes of silence
The ceremony, including the two-minute silence, will be conducted by Ambassador Karel van Oosterom, Captain RNLN Gerrit Nijenhuis and the Minister of the Dutch Church in London, Bertjan van de Lagemaat. Ms Anouk Scheepens will sing the Dutch National Anthem. Via video, several students of de Regenboogschool – a Dutch Saturday school in London – will recite their poems. The bugler of the Dutch Marines Fife and Drum Corps, Brian Aartman, will play the bugle call for the ceremony.
What do we remember on the 4th of May?
Ever since the end of the Second World War, the Netherlands has commemorated its war victims on 4 May at 8pm. Since 1961, victims of the Second World War are also remembered together with Dutch victims of more recent conflicts, wars and peacekeeping missions elsewhere in the world.
Remembrance outside of the Netherlands
The two minutes of silence on the 4th of May take place at 20.00 local time. Therefore, the official Remembrance Ceremony in the Netherlands will be one hour earlier than in the Netherlands. It is possible to watch the official ‘Nationale Dodenherdenking’ ceremony at 19.00 BST via https://www.npostart.nl/live. An hour later, you can watch the ceremony at Mill Hill Cemetery, where many Dutch WWII victims are laid to rest, via the Facebook page of the Dutch Embassy in the UK.
