Island Governor Jonathan Johnson and four Saba students laying wreaths at the war monument in The Bottom on Memorial Day.
SABA--As is customary on Memorial Day, May 4, the victims of World War II were remembered at the war monument in The Bottom. On the monument are the names of 130 persons of the Netherlands Antilles, including twelve Sabans, who perished during the 1940-1945 war.
Formerly, there were 129 names on the war monument, but on December 19, 2021, the name of a 130th person, Thelma Esther Polak, was added. She was a Jewish nurse who was born in Saba in 1920 as the daughter of a Surinamese/Jewish doctor who worked in Saba. She perished at concentration camp Sobibor in present-day Poland in 1943.
The original, larger plaque contains the names of 11 Saba seafarers who died on sunken oil tankers during World War II.
Island Governor Jonathan Johnson, Island Secretary Tim Muller, several members of the Island Council, a group of more than 20 Sacred Heart School (SHS) and Saba Comprehensive School (SCS) students, civil servants and other members of the community were present at the solemn ceremony. SHS had students of grade 6 and staff present, while the SCS had delegated at least one student of each grade, students of the Saba history programme and staff.
Johnson, Island Council Members Hemmie van Xanten and Carl Buncamper and four students laid wreaths at the monument following the one-minute silence at 2:00pm, the exact same moment of the Memorial Day observance in the Netherlands and in other parts of the Dutch Kingdom.
“We are very lucky to live in freedom in Saba. We should cherish and enjoy this freedom, and remember what it means, especially now with the war in Ukraine,” stated Johnson in a short address at the start of the ceremony.
He also mentioned that Polak’s name had been added to the monument on a separate small plaque in December 2021. “We remember her as well, as she too was born in Saba,” said Johnson. He noted that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ceremony had not taken place last year.
The victims of World War II were commemorated at the war monuments throughout the Dutch Caribbean. The 129 victims whose names are engraved on the identical plaques, which were installed on all six islands in 1957, include merchant navy personnel, persecuted people, civil and resistance victims, and military personnel.
The majority of the Antillean victims were seafarers who worked on oil tankers. The oil refineries in Aruba and Curaçao supplied fuel for the Allied Forces.
A large group of students was present at Wednesday’s commemoration. “It is important to have our students appreciate freedom, to observe the importance of living in a safe environment and to remember that freedom is not a given,” said SCS principal Anton Hermans.
SCS will host a freedom breakfast at The Flight Deck, Bizzy B, Island Flavor, Bottom Bean, Queen’s Garden’s resort and spa, Ecolodge, the Home and SCS, 8:00-10:00am on Liberation Day, today, May 5.
Students, former students and many others will assist with this breakfast which serves to observe and celebrate freedom. “It is a true community effort,” said Hermans.
Besides Saba, freedom breakfasts and meals will also be held in Aruba, Curaçao, Bonaire and St. Maarten.
