YAY we finished another world war unit!!

My class and I just finished a unit in World War II and we were assigned to do a blogpost about an event towards the end of the 2nd world war. This included The Liberation of Europe, specifically the Netherlands.

For this blog post I have the amazing opportunity to talk about a story I learned about while I was in Ottawa in my Encounters with Canada trip. I picked this story as it closely related to my topic question:

How was the Dutch and Canadian relationship affected by the Canadian war efforts in the Netherlands?

When I first heard this story I absolutely loved it as it is so moving how simple acts of kindness can be so impactful for people during bad times. The story I will talk about is about Canada and the Netherlands, two very closely related allies during WWII. These countries were somewhat related previous to the war, but their relationship strengthened immensely by the end.

The story takes place during WWII. At this time most of Europe has been invaded by Germany. The Netherlands being one of them took action took action to keep their royals safe. To make sure they kept their royals safe the Dutch family sent their heir Princess Juliana and her 3 children to Canada where they took refuge. Princess Juliana became pregnant during her time in exile in Canada. This meant Princess Juliana was going to give birth in non-Dutch territory. This was very extremely unfortunate as Dutch royals are legally required to be born in Dutch territory. When Princess Margriet, Juliana’s daughter was born the maternity ward of Ottawa Civic Hospital in which Princess Margriet was born was declared to be extraterritorial by the Canadian government. This great act of kindness by the Canadian Government was greatly appreciated by the Dutch.

This picture above shows Princess Margriet and her two siblings.

To celebrate the birth of the Dutch princess the Canadian Parliament building flew the Dutch flag over the Peace Tower. This was the only time ever a flag other than Canada’s had flown over the Canadian Parliament Building. Overseas, the princess’s birth and Canada’s actions were seen by the Dutch as an important symbol of hope and inspiration. This act surely proved the strong relationship between the two countries

The Holand flag being flown over the Peace Tower in Ottawa.

Not only did the Canada temporarily donate Canadian territory to the Dutch Family, they saved the Netherlands from the Nazi campaign. Towards the last few months of the war Canada was given the important and dangerous task to liberate the Netherlands from the Nazis. Canada fought German forces for months to finally end the dutch’s starvation and their oppression under German power. When the victorious Canadian soldiers arrived to the Netherlands they were all received as heroes.

As a show of gratitude for her stay in Canada and the brave soldiers’ role in the liberation of the Netherlands, Princess Juliana presented the people of Canada with 100,000 tulips. The following year another 20,500 tulips were sent to be planted in the hospital grounds were Princess Margriet was born. Every year since 1942 the Netherlands sends tulips to Canada as a tradition. This form of gratitude created the Tulip Festival in Ottawa, a very famous celebration still being held to this day. The festival welcomed Queen Juliana, who visited during Canada’s centennial year in 1967, as well as Princess Margriet, who returned in 2002 for the 50th edition of the annual event.

As you can tell by this very moving story a strong relationship was developed between the two powers during WWII and will keep growing.