THE HAGUE - The Dutch marked the 60th anniversary of their wartime liberation Thursday amid concerns the memories of that occasion will be lost to future generations.
Crown Prince Willem Alexander said in a commemorative ceremony at s'Hertogenbosch (Bois-le-Duc) that the day would always be a celebration of liberty and peace, "but we should enlarge the meaning of the occasion in order to keep it alive for future generations."
The prince and Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende lit the liberty flame at s'Hertogenbosch, setting in motion ceremonies across the country, many of them including veterans from the allied nations that helped free the Dutch from Nazi rule.
Willem Alexander recalled the many heros of the war, "such as the printers who dared to print illegal newspapers, or the mothers who received Jews at their table as though they were members of their own family."
In the future, he said, "it is us who will have to fulfil these heroic roles, even if the times, the circumstances and the risks will be very different."
05/05/2005 16:06 GMT