May 4 is Memorial Day in the Netherlands. One of the activities that was run this year to commemorate the Second World War was a photo competition. People from all twelve provinces plus the Netherlands’ (former) overseas territories could nominate and vote for pictures they felt best represented the war.
You can find the 100 winners on the official website. (It’s in Dutch, but easy to navigate.) Here is a selection:
Dutch soldiers on ice near Leusden, January 11, 1940 (Polygoon/Co Zeijlemaker)German soldiers attempt to direct bicycle traffic in Amsterdam, 1941 (NIOD)Japanese soldier watches one of the oil refineries in Palembang on the island of Sumatra in the Dutch Indies burn, February 13-15, 1942 (NIOD)Propaganda photo of members of the Nederlandse Arbeidsdienst marching to work near Workum in May 1942 (Fries Verzetsmuseum)Nijmegen after the Allied bombardment of February 22, 1944 (Centraal Regionaal Archief Nijmegen)Dutch father escorts his children to safety while Allied forces battle the Germans in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, October 26, 1944 (IWM)Resident of Haarlem watches from her roof as Allied bombers drop food supplies in May 1945 (Noord-Hollands Archief/G.Th. Delemarre)Residents of Terbregge, a neighborhood of Rotterdam, cheer as Allied bombers drop food supplies in May 1945 (Stadsarchief Rotterdam/H.F. Grimeyer)British troops patrol the streets of Batavia (now Jakarta) following the liberation of the Dutch Indies from the Japanese in late 1945 (NIOD)
