A delegation from Shrewsbury, including the Deputy Mayor, Councillor Tony Durnell, has visited the town’s twin counterpart in Zutphen.
The focus of this year’s visit was remembrance and the trip coincided with Liberation Day, a national day of remembrance in Holland similar to November 11 in the UK.
To mark the occasion, Councillor Durnell laid a traditional poppy wreath, taken to Zutphen especially, on the town’s war monument on behalf of the citizens of Shrewsbury.
Other parts of the programme included visits to the National Resistance Museum, Anne Frank’s House where she famously accounted her times in hiding against Nazi Germany and the Westerbork Transit Camp where many thousands of Jews where housed in readiness for transfer to Auschwitz.
The finale of the trip was a visit to the British War Cemetery at Arnhem where the group paid its respects to those from Shrewsbury who lost their lives in the fateful Battle of Arnhem so close to the end of the war.
Councillor Durnell said: “This was a very poignant and moving visit. The Dutch people’s experiences of the war are very different to ours, we cannot comprehend what they went through. Those war time experiences have shaped our respective countries. We shall never forget.”
Helen Ball, Town Clerk added: “It is nearing 70 years since the end of the Second World War, the act of remembrance is never far from people’s minds. Both countries have, in recent times, carried out operations in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan and both have suffered casualties and fatalities.”
In November this year, a delegation from Zutphen will make a return trip to Shrewsbury, giving an opportunity for the Shrewsbury Twinning Committee to show its foreign guests what war remembrance means to the town.
Councillor Durnell said he was excited to welcome the Zutphen delegates, but that help was needed to create an informative programme for Shrewsbury’s foreign guests.
“It will be a great opportunity to showcase our beautiful town,” he said. “I am excited to welcome our Zutphen guests. Work on an interesting programme of activities is well underway but we need local people to come forward and help. We would like to know about people’s experiences of war and would like to see any photographs they may have of the effects of war on Shrewsbury. With the help of the Air Cadets and The Hive media centre we want to capture what remembrance means to our town in 2011.”
Information can be sent to Helen Ball, Town Clerk at helen.ball-stc@shropshire.gov.uk or call 01743 281010.
For further information contact Suzi Wilkinson, Marketing & Promotions Officer on: 01743 257654 or email suzi.wilkinson-stc@shropshire.gov.uk