Delft blue pottery plate to commemorate the Liberation (Bevrijding) of the Netherlands from the Nazi yoke - May 5, 1945

Germany & The Netherlands

In May, I was in both Germany and The Netherlands.  I attended the festive wedding of my god-daughter, Dorothea to Franz-Ludwig, , and in Germany had opportunity to deepen in person relationships thinned by distance and Zoom .   

In my birth country, I was mostly in conversation with Dutch cousins – all in the last quarter of life, like me, readily talking about the health issues that come with aging, and news about their families.

In both lands, the ravages of World War II were history no longer noticeable and clearly transcended. Both countries had been liberated from the evils related to being German occupiers and occupied Netherlanders.   The animosities generated during those years of Nazi government and militant resisters were well past.  The end of warfare, along with Nuremberg trials, and much reconstruction opened the way to creative, peaceful, productive relationships - nationally and personally.

Occupation

I visited the Bevrijdingsmuseum Zeeland in the town of Nieuwdorp near my birthplace, Middelburg. It portrays the Nazi occupation during five years of tyranny and terror, but emphasizing, by its name, the blessed gifts energized by Liberation.

Liberation in the southern province of Zeeland came earlier than in the northern provinces. The latter had to suffer fierce warfare, deadly famine, and ongoing Nazi terror.  Jews had been transported to Westerbork transit camp on the way to killing centres in Germany. The north was finally liberated as the image above indicates.

In Zeeland, November 7^{t h} was Liberation Day with the surrender of the military governor.   Much too late for far too many, including Marcus Nathan residing just down the street from the house in which I was born. He was transported to Auschwitz and murdered on January 8, 1943. The “crime”?  Just being Jews!. (*see picture below of brass plate affixed on street before the home from which the Nazis took him.)

The way to Liberation was hard and bloody. From May 20, 1940, the Nazis had occupied our island, Walcheren and destroyed the historic centre of Middelburg. The occupying soldiers had priority over residents’ needs and officers had quarters in residents’ homes (including ours). German slave camps and executions were the ready, disproportionate punishments for recalcitrant and loose-lipped burgers. Fear was rampant as NSB* collaborators would report “disloyal” burgers to the Gestapo. Nothing was as it should be or as intended by the Creator.

*Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging (Nazi Party of The Netherlands)

Resistance

But Resistance was both a right and a duty – with grave consequences if caught. The right of self-determination is a human fundamental.  Occupation as a result of conquest is illegal in international law, but even more significantly, it is a flaming passion in the hearts and souls of people occupied by tyrants and terrorizers compelling Resistance – subtly, intentionally, and, sadly, even violently.

Zeelanders were forced to labour on the Atlantic wall, by which the occupier aimed to block both military landings and Allied provisioning ships from sailing upstream to the key harbour at Antwerp. Simultaneously, however, the Dutch resistance was actively listening to surreptitious newscasts from the Allies, while engaged in undermining Nazi efforts to subjugate and stay in control.

Revenge was inevitable. The scale included the firing squad for ten town citizens for an attack on one soldier.  Brutal repression - individual and collective - was the strategy - typical of occupying conquerors. But Resistance kept the flame of freedom alive.

Liberation also required the aerial bombardment of key sea dikes protecting our island from the North Sea.  The idea was first suggested by Canadian Lt. Gen. Guy Simonds. The strategy resulted in an inundation of most of our island, making making Nazi troop movement impossible. That along with fierce fighting at the Sloedam causeway to a neighbouring island tipped the scales toward capitulation.

Facing British troops, the German commander, Lt. Gen. Wilhelm Daser, had had enough. He surrendered to a minor officer and on Middelburg’s market square, 2070 German troops became prisoners of war – the arrival of Liberation for them and me!

This story stands out in my mind – even though I was only 3 months old when this part of the war ended in my city. It keeps nagging at me that in Palestine, the Israeli occupiers have not been able to learn crucial lessons from World War II - the right to resist occupation and subjugation..

Right to Resist

Occupying territory and subjugating a people can only awaken heartfelt impassioned Resistance. 

The ongoing efforts of the Zionist State of Israel to turn the pluralism of Palestine into a Jews-only or Jewish-dominated apartheid state will only be rewarded with hatred, animosity, and violence.

Valid RESISTANCE is guaranteed for as long as Palestinians exist and equipped people find groups that envision resistance strategies.   For this, they are usually demonized as “communists” (Mandela & ANCC), or “terrorists” (Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthi).  The murder of 75,000+,  starvation strategies, high seas piracy, aggressions against neighbouring states -  are just not recognized as terrorist crimes by willfully blind and deaf Western allies and denied by Israeli leaders and lobbies.

There is no doubt that Israeli leaders know that resistance is the inevitable response to their crimes.  Their intentional racist displacement, ethnic cleansing, and indiscriminate annihilation of Palestinian human beings clearly indicates they understand that the consequence of their genocidal policies and terrorizing actions is legitimate resistance.  Hence, erasing all signs and evidence of the Palestinian reality is the goal, along with the outright theft of Palestinian lands and properties.

The current efforts of West Bank Settler Israelis backed by IDF terror units clearly indicates that Israel feels it can only live securely with 30-foot high walls at its borders to keep Palestinians out of "their homeland". That, of course, creates a prison for Israelis.  Respectfully negotiating a mutually beneficial and just agreement is squashed by the  chosen military option.

Divine Will

But as the hymn states, “Wall that divide are broken down” whether we try to stop it or not. The human family is ONE – we are all children of God’s global earthly family.  Equally important is that, Palestinian Arabs and Jews are children of a common father, Abraham, with mothers Hagar and Sarah.  Fratricide, sororicide is not only a violation of the Torah and repudiation of the Covenant with God, but also a blasphemous dishonouring of the Holy Parent of the entire global human family.

It took courageous, clever, loyal, caring, and faithful Dutch men and women resisters working closely (through underground communication channels) with Allied forces to terminate the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands and bring Liberation to both Dutch and German peoples.

It will also take resilient, patient, intelligent, preferably peaceful, and visionary Palestinians to work together with gifted and equipped faithful others along with possibly armed global advocates (e.g. UN peace keepers) to end the illegal and barbaric Israeli colonial settler occupation and subjugation of Palestine.

In the end, both Palestinians and Israelis must seek negotiated but justice-based solutions to this historic crime which has plagued these west Asian lands and much of the world beyond.   The Balfour Declaration may have launched this evil, but its seeds are rooted in racist antisemitism and anti-Arabism/Palestinianism propagated by the Western world’s nations and religious institutions.

The way towards Liberation is ending the murders of sisters and brothers and pursuing truth and justice-based peace. God grant this gift of peace, salaam, shalom, vrede, friede – now,  for Liberation tomorrow.