Our Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, pleaded with Americans during a televised program on Monday, March 29, 2021. With emotion in her voice, she implored all of us to still be vigilant and to keep all of the previous proposed measures, such as masks and distance mitigation. At that time, the coronavirus threat was not over yet. She said, “Please stay with it for a little while longer.”
That reminded me of Dolle Dinsdag (Mad Tuesday) 77 years ago in the Netherlands during World War II. Our prime minister, then in exile in London, broadcasted on the BBC on September 5, 1944, that the Allied forces had crossed into the Netherlands and were approaching the town of Breda.
You can imagine that after more than four years of Nazi occupation and terror, the Dutch people went wild.
Dutch flags and orange banners were dug up and hung from houses, although this was strictly forbidden by the Nazis. People actually started dancing in the streets.
Some Nazis and collaborators fled back to Germany.
Some people who had been in hiding from the Nazis—such as Jews, people in the underground, or people who were called up for forced labor—decided to come out of hiding and participate in the “liberation” festivities.
The remaining Nazis in Holland organized large “roundups,” throwing as many people as they could find in jail and deporting more newly found Jews to concentration camps.
The BBC broadcast of September 5 had been made without actual proof of approaching Allied forces.
Then, on September 19, 1944, the Dutch railroad workers went on strike. From that date on, there were no more deportations from the Netherlands.
The southern part of the Netherlands was liberated in the fall of 1944. About eight months later on May 5, 1945, the area north of the big rivers—the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheldt—was, too. After we were liberated, my parents waited a few days before they went outside with their children. They had waited this long, so waiting a few more days to make sure we were free did not make a difference anymore.
We should all listen to the scientists and experts. They give us advice. They want us to be safe.
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