Cabar Feidh

70 Years on from the Liberation
of the Netherlands.
Seventy years later, the
service and sacrifices of Canadians
in the liberation of the Netherlands
were remembered with pride
and appreciation by both of our
countries. As Seaforths we felt
particularly honoured and fortunate
to have been selected to be part of
Canada’s Veterans Delegation in the
celebration and commemoration.
Ceremonies at war graves
cemeteries Groesbeek and Holten in
the Netherlands and the Reichswald
Forest War Cemetery, Germany
were a deeply moving tribute to our
fallen comrades.
The War Cemeteries and the
Westerbork Transit Camp.
Very often we old Sailors,
Soldiers and Airmen have had
people at home say to us, “What
a shame we didn’t have all of our
Fallen Comrades brought home
to Canada”, instead of leaving
them in the countries like Holland
where they fell. Such as at Holten,
where more than four thousand
people turned up to take part in
the Memorial Service that was held
WWII Seaforth Veteran, William Stoker, at the Holten
Memorial with Laid wreaths
to honour our fallen during the
Liberation week. To those people
we say. We left them in the gentle
care of the Dutch people who
honour them and care for them as
their own. Our Canadian Cemeteries
are beautifully maintained by the
people of the Netherlands and
are frequently visited by school
children and a Dutch Group in
The symbolically twisted railway tracks at the Westerbork
siding
26
WWII Canadian Uniforms called
“The Honour Guard”. We only wish
that all Canadians were able to visit
the final resting place of the more
than six thousand Canadians who
lie in the care of our Dutch Friends
and be comforted by what they see.
We certainly are.
The services at the
Commonwealth Cemeteries were,
by their very nature, solemn affairs.
So too was the ceremony at the
Westerbork Transit Camp which
was used by the Nazis to hold Jews,
and other “Undesirables” before
they were shipped eastwards in
cattle cars to the extermination
camps of the “Final Solution”. .
The ceremony was held
next to railway tracks that marked
the site of the siding from which
102,000 men, women and children,
including babies and notables
such as Anne Frank started their
final journeys. The tracks are now
symbolically twisted upwards to
signify that they could never be
used again.
The camp and ceremony had