Unique images of the liberation of Leeuwarden have been digitized in Friesland. The images of 15 April 1945 were made by resident Johan Witteveen, with his 8-millimeter camera.
Men with a band around their arm that has BS on it, the abbreviation for Domestic Forces, walk across the Wirdumerdijk in Leeuwarden. One looks a bit frightened, the other walks with an anti-tank weapon on his shoulder. Another person smiles at cameraman Witteveen, who records the first hours of the liberation of Leeuwarden.
The Canadian liberators were still en route at that time. The streets are still wet with rain on that Sunday morning and in the rain, the Interior Forces have overpowered the last 200 Germans in Leeuwarden. Snipers were eliminated and the prisoners freed from the Blokhuispoort. The civil servants arrest the first people.
Witteveen stands in the niche of a shop opposite his house. He used his camera mostly to record family trips, but that day he films an event of historical significance.
View the images here:
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