Remembering and celebrating freedom of utmost importance, especially now

The number of eyewitnesses to World War II decreases every year, but we cannot avoid history. Does the need to remember and celebrate freedom remain? According to Wiel Lenders, director of the Freedom Museum in Groesbeek, we cannot do otherwise. "It is of the utmost importance, especially now." Talking about war evokes emotions and memories for many people. Some think of their own past or stories from family members about World War II. Another thinks of fleeing as a family from Syria. And yet another thinks of her devastated village in Ukraine. And all those stories are important to remember.

Triangular diamond
Freedom, democracy and the rule of law. Lenders calls it the trinity, the triangular diamond we got in Europe after World War II. "It may sound so obvious, but three-quarters of the world's population lacks one of those three. We don't even have to look far away or far back for that. War and freedom are highly topical issues that continue to cry out for attention." That, according to Lenders, is what makes it so urgent to continue to remember and celebrate our freedom. "World War II remains the greatest humanitarian catastrophe that ever took place, with 70 to 80 million dead: murdered, killed or missing. It's an important moral benchmark that you have to keep talking about." According to Lenders, this requires three steps. First, this theme of "War and Freedom" involves objective knowledge, then understanding the why, and finally, engagement and involvement in the present time. The Freedom Museum shows this history and actuality every day. The story of war and freedom without borders.

Recent history
In addition, it is important to connect World War II to more recent history and current developments. To look not only at World War II, but also at what has been happening in the world since then. From different perspectives, the human dilemmas and unknown stories of civilians and soldiers are portrayed. And what is the situation today, 80 years later? "We have life jackets on display here in the museum from people who fled by sea to Europe," Lenders says. "There are school books from Afghanistan. We have a Ukrainian ambulance in front of the door. We are not standing with our backs to the past and not with our backs to the future. Certainly not when Russian aggression is trampling on freedom, democracy and the rule of law in a country like Ukraine."

Everyone's ownpain
The museum was once established to tell about the liberation of the Netherlands, just as many countries in Europe focused on their own national story: their own suffering and (allied) heroic stories. "By telling only one's own stories, you get a limited view of the past, but also of the future. You understand society better if you look at history from multiple sides and also from across the border." As an example, Lenders cites a collaboration with the German company Krupp of Duisburg. "The company did very bad things during World War II, such as producing war materials for Nazi Germany and using mass forced labor. For more than a decade every year during a number of training weeks we have received a group of young steelworkers from this company whom we teach here about World War II, but also about tolerance and freedom. It makes a big impression every time." The Freedom Museum wants to challenge people to think about what freedom means to them. Lenders: "You learn here about the Holocaust and about all the other victim ers who perished during World War II. But it is also important to ask questions of everyone, whatever their background: where is your pain? What have you experienced? What does freedom mean to you? There is room for those other histories and stories. And then someone will also understand how important the triangular diamond of freedom, democracy and rule of law is."