Just after midnight, the Liberation Fire was lit on the 5 May Square in Wageningen by 96-year-old British veteran Marie Scott. With that, Liberation Day, the day on which we celebrate the liberation from the German occupation in 1945, has officially kicked off.
Wageningen was the place where the German occupiers capitulated on May 5, 1945, after which the Netherlands was officially liberated. Lighting the fire symbolizes the transition from Remembrance Day on May 4 to Liberation Day on May 5.
First female veteran
Scott is the first female former soldier to light the Liberation Fire at Hotel de Wereld. She did this together with mayor Floor Vermeulen of Wageningen.
Scott was in the British Army liaison service in Portsmouth. On and after D-Day, the Allied landing on the beaches of Normandy on 6 June 1944, she relayed messages to the front.
She traveled to the Netherlands with fifteen other British veterans on Wednesday to attend the commemoration of the end of the Second World War. They are also leading today in the Liberation Defilé in Wageningen, in which about 1500 veterans from all kinds of Dutch missions participate.
About 1,700 relay runners from 97 municipalities will set off from Wageningen with torches to spread the fire. It is brought to the fourteen Liberation Festivals, among other places. Liberation Day is traditionally concluded in Amsterdam with the May 5 concert on the Amstel.
