More than 120 people commemorated the 77 Soviet soldiers who were shot by the occupier exactly 83 years ago today in Leusden. Candles were placed at the Koedriest Monument near the execution site.
More than 120 people attended the commemoration, including the mayors of Leusden and Amersfoort and the ambassador of Kazakhstan. Students from ‘t Atrium and Corderius College lit candles, which were then placed by those present at the monument. They brought light into the darkness.
So when the sun rose, 77 red candles were burning for the 77 executed soldiers and 24 white candles for the prisoners of war from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, among others, who had already died of hunger, disease and abuse in Camp Amersfoort. After the war, their remains were transferred to the Soviet War Cemetery, where they lie buried as unknowns to this day.
“The Nazis took not only their lives but also their identity,” said Remco Reiding, director of the Soviet War Cemetery Foundation. “We feel morally obligated to continue our efforts to identify the soldiers who still rest nameless at the Soviet War Cemetery.”
The soldiers captured on the Eastern Front were presented and treated as inferior human beings by the Nazis. “The people of Amersfoort were also very skeptical about the Soviet soldiers at first,” said guest speaker Caecilia van Peski, an expert in the field of peace and security. “Who were those small, emaciated men with black eyes, with Asian facial features who whispered in languages that no one could identify?”
Eventually, several Amersfoort citizens decided to help the foreign soldiers by giving them water and food. In Camp Amersfoort, the Soviet soldiers received help from fellow prisoners, but their lives could not be saved.
Michael Simonyan, spoken word artist and music producer, put himself in the shoes of the soldiers and said, among other things, the following words:
Stuck in a cage in the cold outside air
I think about it again at night when I sigh in the dark
We get small pieces of bread, they want to see us eat like animals
But we are in pain together when we share those pieces
Later we get a cell, but work until evening roll call
Where we have to stand for hours, until every foot swells
I simply cannot understand how it is possible
People who are so driven by abuse and hatred
And it remains something I question every day
Why I give my life for a dictator and his state
After the speeches, trumpeter Pim Kruithof played the tattoo signal (the Dutch Last Post) and the attendees observed one minute of silence. After the commemoration, the attendees visited the execution site, on the grounds of Golfclub De Hoge Kleij, where the directors of the Soviet War Cemetery Foundation and National Monument Kamp Amersfoort Foundation jointly lit a large candle.
Read Remco Reiding’s speech here
Read the commemorative speech by CJ van Peski here
The Soviet War Cemetery Foundation has been organizing the commemoration since 2013. The remembrance was made possible with the support and/or cooperation of many volunteers from the foundation, the Fund for Community Initiatives, the National Monument Camp Amersfoort Foundation, the Juliana Concert Orchestra, the Amersfoort Crematorium and Cemeteries, VIA/AV and Golf Club De Hoge Kleij.
Photo Credits: Suzanne Flipse/Soviet War Cemetery Foundation en Klaas van Huizen/Soviet War Cemetery Foundation
