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Among the Dutch, the artist Anselm Kiefer and the author Anne Frank, there is a connection that is found in silence. On Sunday, May 4, 2025, a two-minute period of silence brought the city of Amsterdam to a halt. The streetcars stopped running. The streets emptied. No cars, bicycles or people. Boats stayed moored on the canals. The trees across the road in Vondelpark appeared still. The sun seemed to hide behind the clouds. Life did not stir for two minutes.

The two-minute silence was meant to commemorate Liberation Day—The Netherlands’ liberation from the Nazis eighty years ago.