Dutch king lays wreath, thousands attend remembrance event

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Dutch King Willem-Alexander has laid a wreath at a war memorial in Amsterdam during the first national commemoration of the country’s war dead since coronavirus restrictions were lifted earlier this year. Thousands of people — including at least one draped in a Ukrainian flag — observed two minutes of silence at 8 p.m. Wednesday on the Dutch capital’s Dam Square. It was a marked difference from the last two May 4 wreath-laying ceremonies in Amsterdam, which were held without public because of COVID-19 lockdown measures. Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema alluded to the war in Ukraine when she described in a speech photographs of death and destruction in the Dutch capital during World War II. She said: “They are old photos, but the imagery is current.”