Piece: unknown whitness

Peace

At May 4 in the evening 09:00pm the south part of Amsterdam was raising hell. There was a so-called peace. The people were hunt inside with gun shots. Saturday May 5 08:00am, the capitulation was a fact for the Netherlands. The whole city flags. Everyone carries orange and the national colors. Monday May 7 the Canadians will come to Amsterdam. The Canadians take over the region Zuid-Holland. They arrive tomorrow in Amsterdam. Everybody is excited.

Monday May 7. This morning a few Canadian tanks appear in the city. These 5 tanks set a huge crowd in motion. Thousands walked along the main streets to celebrate. The tanks left the city in the afternoon. About 02:30pm I went to the Ruyterkade because I had to be on guard. Along the Rokin there was an tremendous crowd.At 02:45pm I arrived on the Dam were you can walk over the heads. I found myself right in the centre before the Palace when we heard shooting behind the Palace. The people on the Dam started to run away. At the same time I saw the guard on the Grote Club, the staff of the German Marine was here, took his machine-gun and started shooting on the people on the Dam. Simultaneous the windows of the balcony on the first floor opened and a machine-gun was pointed at the crowd.
The effect was beyond words. The bullets went in all directions. Everybody run in horde to the Damrak. Bicycles, prams and people were trampled underfoot. A bit further a little boy, about 10 years old, grabed me and told me that he was hurt. I took him by his good arm and together we ran to the police station in the Warmoestraat. There was no bandage present. At the same time a women with a bullet wound in her leg came inside. We ran further to the Prins Hendrikade 96. There was an EHBO post. Inside was already a woman with a head wound. The little boy had an arm teared open. Afterwards a lot of people fled inside because people from the Victoria Hotel also started shooting. The next victim was a man with an finger cut off.
It was a massacre we must never forget. All measures that will be taken against the Germans will be nothing compared with the guilt that they had in this war.

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Source: NIOD 244-1731 Unknown whitness.

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