The Netherlands is remembering those who died during World War II and subsequent conflicts at a string of ceremonies all over the country on Monday.

At the Canadian war grave cemetery in Holten some 4,000 people, including 60 veterans and Canada’s prime minister Stephen Harper, attended a wreath-laying ceremony.

In total, around 120 Canadian veterans are thought to be in the Netherlands for the ceremonies.

‘The heroes who liberated the Netherlands, like the men and women who serve our country today, understood that when there arises a great evil, a threat to all the things that define our existence as a free and just people, such enemies must be confronted,’ Harper said in a speech, the Canadian Press reported.

The cemetery, near Arnhem, contains the graves of 1,350 Canadian soldiers, most of whom were killed during the final push to end the war 70 years ago.

Rotterdam

In Rotterdam, mayor Achmed Aboutaleb gave a speech about the members of the merchant navy who died. ‘We are remembering the more than 3,500 civilians who died on almost 500 Dutch ships during World War II,’ the mayor said at the ceremony at the merchant navy memorial at the base of the Erasmus bridge.

On Monday morning, the leaders of the upper and lower houses of parliament and prime minister Mark Rutte laid wreaths at the national monument in The Hague.

Defence minister Jeanine Hennis attended a ceremony at the war graves cemetery in Loenen near Apeldoorn.

‘The building which is our freedom is permanently surrounded by scaffolding,’ she said in a speech. ‘It will never be completed because if intolerance, racism and discrimination grow, the very foundations of this building can be damaged.’

Silence

The main ceremonies will take place on Monday evening, when the king and queen will lay wreaths in Dam Square in the heart of Amsterdam. The ceremony will follow a reading by Anglo-Dutch historian Ian Buruma in the Nieuwe Kerk.

The Dam will be closed off to the general public between 17.30 and 22.00 hours.

Public transport companies, including Dutch railway firm NS, will also observe the two-minutes silence and trains will come to a standstill. There will be no take-offs and landings at Schiphol airport between 19.45 and 20.15 hours.