Liberation of the Netherlands and Denmark

On May 5, 1945, the German forces occupying the Netherlands surrendered to Canadian General Charles Foulkes at Hotel De Wereld in Wageningen, ending five years of brutal occupation that killed approximately 270,000 Dutch civilians — including 102,000 Jews murdered in the Holocaust, the highest percentage of any Western European Jewish community. The same day, German forces in Denmark and Norway capitulated as part of the general German collapse; Danish citizens emerged to place lit candles in their windows, a spontaneous act of celebration that has become an annual remembrance tradition. The Netherlands had suffered severely in the 'Hunger Winter' of 1944–45, when the German administration cut off food supplies, killing 18,000–22,000 civilians from starvation.