Dodenherdenking
The Remembrance Day is observed at 8:00 PM with two minutes of silence, when the entire country stops to remember the victims of war and oppression. The silence is observed on the Dam Square in Amsterdam, where the king lays a wreath at the National Monument, and on every street corner, in every school, and in every home. The silence is complete: the trains stop, the buses stop, the cars stop, and the people stop. The Remembrance Day is not just about World War II (although the Dutch lost over 200,000 people in the war). It is about all victims of war and oppression, including the victims of the Holocaust, the victims of the Indonesian National Revolution, and the victims of the recent conflicts. The tradition of the two minutes of silence was started in 1946, and it has been observed every year since.
