平特五不中

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| November 6 2015

Faculty, staff and students from 平特五不中's Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences joined with their campus partners - John Abbott College and Macdonald High School -听as well as with听Veterans from the Veterans' Hosital in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue and invited guests from the local community to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice so that we can enjoy the freedoms and privileges we have today.

Dean Anja Geitman shared her personal experience:

On behalf of 平特五不中 and Macdonald campus I welcome you all.

I grew up and went to school in Europe. World Wars I and II having taken place on our soil, these topics were covered in great length and detail in our curriculum. We were taught dates and places. We were taught names. But we were 10, 12, 14 years old. Like anything that had taken place before we were born, these wars were distant events. Whether we were taught about the Roman Empire or World War II, they seemed to be abstract concepts.

The first time the fact that history is alive sank in for me happened when I lived in Wageningen for a few years. Wageningen is a small town in the Netherlands. It was in Wageningen, on May 5, 1945, that the Canadian General Charles Foulkes and the German Commander-in-Chief Johannes Blaskowitz reached an agreement on the capitulation of German forces in the Netherlands. This event marked the end of the occupation by Nazi Germany. It took place in Hotel de Wereld, a venue that today is used for many events held by the Wageningen University.

To commemorate this important date, every year on May 5 the Dutch celebrate Befrijdings Dag - Liberation Day. And it was when I saw Canadian veterans marching in the parade that I realized the full gravity of this historic date. The gravity of the sacrifices that these people brought, who in their advanced age still nowadays cross the Atlantic to come and commemorate their fallen comrades. And the unwavering thankfulness that the Dutch people continue to express so many decades later. Meeting the people who lived war makes all the difference in our understanding.

I therefore invite the youth present here, those of you who are 10, 12, 14 years old and for whom history lessons are likely as abstract as they were for me when I was young, to speak to the veterans. Try and understand, what makes people risk their lives to defend one of the most important commodities of all, a commodity that we tend to take for granted: freedom.

Anja Geitmann, Associate Vice-Principal, Macdonald Campus