Celebration and protest: this was Liberation Day 2025

Celebrating freedom: the Netherlands did it for the 80th time yesterday. This happened with the lighting of the liberation fire, speeches and festivals in fourteen cities, but there were also protests. A look back.

By MANFRED ROUHS 80 years ago US-American and Soviet soldiers reached over the rubble of the militarily defeated and largely destroyed Germany. Hitler was dead, the German cities resembled moonscapes, millions of German soldiers went into prisoner of war, and for the German civilian population began a time marked by hardship and uncertainty about their future. The hunger winter 1946/47 cost several hundred thousand Germans their lives. A state o…