[Leica] May 8, 1945, my Epilogue

[DouglasMSharp at netscape.net (Douglas M. Sharp)]

Lest we forget :
Particularly the Netherlands  suffered extremely towards the end of the 
war, there are photos taken secretly by a Dutch photographer showing
people in Noord Holland dying of starvation on the streets, I have seen 
documents from the British and Canadian troops
stationed in Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein which refer to the 
priority of requisitioning of trucks to transport food and aid to Holland
referring to the dire situation of the Dutch, and that the situation 
there was  of a priority greater than the "pacification" of German " 
residual
nests of resistance". In fact the first operations of the RAF and RCAF 
were airlifts to drop food and medicines to the Dutch.
.
Although a certain proportion of the Dutch avidly supported Mussert with 
their own  brand of National Socialism, only to bebetrayed when the Germans
seized power , the Dutch remained one of the  strongest pockets of 
active resistance to the occupying Nazi troops, supporting and supported by
allied agents and infiltrators. Such resistance as there, and in other 
small countries such as Denmark, is often overlooked when the wider 
theatre of war in Europe is considered. Both the Danish and Dutch 
fishing fleets were involved in the ferrying of agents and Jewish 
refugees to neutral countries or to Britain.
showing a bravery hardly ever  found in the regular armed forces, 
running the gauntlet of both evading German patrols and the difficulties 
of passing
the British Naval Coastal Patrols.
I have concentrated on the two northern neighbours of what is now one of 
the important democracies in Europe, but we should alsonot forget
the Free Polish, the French, Yugoslavian and Greek Resistance, the 
Communist Brigades in Italy and even the meagre resistance within the 
German Reich.
The members of which also died in large numbers to help make the world 
what it is today.

I only hope that we, our  children and our grandchildren will be able to 
resist the rising tide of right wing politics and the resurgence of 
anti-semitism,
already raising its ugly head in many parts of the world. And that we 
can resist the incrimination of the whole Islamic world on the basis of 
the acts of
a few fundamentalist maniacs, whether these be in our own countries or 
abroad, be they  Islamic, Christian or Jewish.

With the present speed of communication and dissemination of information 
we can, if we want, recognize and preempt the advent of any World 
threatening
movements. If  we react decisively, and on verifiable facts, taking into 
account the religious and social differences in the crisis regions of 
our planet, we have
a real chance of making the planet a place where we can all live in 
peace and relative prosperity.

We should not only think of those who have died to free us , but also 
those who are living  to make the world a better place,
Kofi Anaan, Nelson Mandela, Michail Gorbachev, Boris Jelzin, Vladimir 
Putin, Amnesty International, Medecins sans Frontieres, Cap Arcona, Oxfam,
Pen, on a sad note the recently assassinated Goran Dzindzic and 
countless others too numerous to mention.
There is yet hope.

Douglas