Toespraak gezaghebber Lady Alida Francis bij dodenherdenking op Sint Eustatius
It is with great admiration and gratitude that we gather here on Memorial Day to remember and celebrate those who made the ultimate sacrifice to preserve our freedom. This brings me to a moment of reflection as I examine the story of Jules Schelvis’ and the impact World War II had on his life.
It was eleven years ago that Schelvis – 93 years old at the time – stood in the Westerkerk in Amsterdam and told the story of his journey to the Sobibor extermination camp in German-occupied Poland in June 1943. In an account of the experience, he vividly described the hunger, exhaustion and filth that 62 passengers endured while being transported in a single railway wagon. Upon their arrival, he recounted the soldiers ripping their watches off their wrists. He spoke of how he lost his wife Rachel in the ensuing chaos. He never saw her again. “How could the world allow us honest citizens of the Netherlands, to be treated like vermin?”, Schelvis asked?
It has been 80 years since the end of World War II and we are still unable to answer these questions honestly. During this commemoration of those who have lost their lives in battle and other conflicts, we must ask ourselves: what lessons have we learned? Having lost his happy childhood in The Hague to the Nazi occupation in 1940 as a result of deportation to Bergen-Belson concentration camp in Germany, Fenichel is concerned that we have not learned anything. Fenichel stated almost 5 years ago, “Look at the terrible things that are happening! As human beings we haven’t learnt the lesson.”
In many ways, the stories of Schelvis and Fenichel are similar to those of tens of millions of survivors who were affected by the war. And today we remember them. Among them were civilians and soldiers who bravely put their own safety on the line for our sake. We must never forget them. We must never forget the sacrifice they made. The English writer, poet, and novelist Rudyard Kipling captured brilliantly the sacrifices these men made in his poem, The Old Issue: It states, “When you go home, tell them of us, and say for their tomorrow, we gave our today.”
On this Memorial Day allow me to remind you of my yearly supplication, and that is for Statians to live in the courageous legacy of these men and women. May we always remember wars and other armed conflicts did not start with gas chambers and invasions. They started with leaders dividing people into “THEM versus US.” They start with intolerance and hate speech and when we stop caring for each other, when we become desensitized and turn a blind eye.
It is therefore imperative that we do not remain silent when injustice is perpetrated against our brothers and sisters; let us not justify nepotism; let us not overlook bias; and let us not turn our back on those who feel abandoned and unsupported. We should instead always uphold values such as honesty, integrity, and fortitude of character.