Dutch PM Rutte supports museum

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte

The Spanish-American writer and philosopher George Santayana once said “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This implies that remembering is a mission. And there is no question that the First World War is one of the darkest pages in world history. It is not without reason that the countries around us still speak of "la Grande Guerre" and "the Great War".

 Even though the Netherlands was only indirectly involved in this horrible conflict, the Somme and Verdun were and still are very close. After more than a hundred years, the stories from the trenches, about the unimaginable hardships, about the filth of a war in which millions of young soldiers lost their lives, still make a deep impression. As a Dutch Frenchman, Jean-Paul de Vries has been keeping the memory of those events alive for decades in his Romagne 14-18 museum. It is an initiative that deserves support, and fortunately also receives this support from many friends and sympathizers. Because remembering is not only a mission, it is also an active verb.

 Lots of success,

 Mark Rutte

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte (6th from the right) attending the ceremonies of the centenary remembrance of the beginning of the Great War at the Menin Gate at Ypres, June 2014