Bevrijdingsdag is Liberation Day in the Netherlands. It marks the liberation of the Netherlands from Nazi control. The Netherlands was liberated by Canadian troops, and now it’s a national holiday.

Bevrijdingsdag came about under Operation Market Garden. When I first learned this in class, I thought it was a grand flea market sale, but it was actually a tactical strategy to defeat the Nazis.

Operation Market Garden was one of the largest airborne missions of all time. Some people see this Operation as a success, while others view it as a failure. I’ve heard of first hand accounts of Dutch citizens in the Arnhem area starve in the Hongerwinter or Hungerwinter. My maternal grandmother told me of stories about eating tulips when things really got tough.

There are several museums dedicated to Operation Market Garden. There’s the National Liberation Museum at Groesbeek, Wings of Liberation Museum Park in Schijndel, and the Airborne Museum Hartestein in Oosterbeek.

There’s also a bunch of monuments that honor the men who died in Operation Market Garden. There’s a monument in Driel dedicated to the Polish soldiers who participated in Operation Market Garden. A picture of it is provided next to this paragraph. There’s also a famous monument for the Dutch in Sint-Oedenrode. There’s a picture of it on the bottom of the page.