Almost all memorial plaques in the Queen Wilhelmina Forest in Dronten, commemorating people who have died from cancer, were destroyed on the night of Sunday, June 18, to Monday, June 19.
"This is truly sad and disheartening," sighed the police officers who surveyed the wreckage on Monday afternoon. The forest, located in the northern part of the Roggebotzand near Dronten, is a memorial monument for people who have died from cancer. It now bears the names of thousands of individuals. Each name on a glass panel at the memorial site is a small monument. Almost all 67 glass panels were presumably smashed with a hammer.
"Pure vandalism," said the police officers who were at the scene on Monday afternoon. "We suspect that the glass panels were smashed with a hammer."
The Dutch Cancer Society (KWF Kankerbestrijding) will file a complaint about the destruction. "The names of loved ones have been brutally obliterated. It is truly terrible. Who would do such a thing?" stated Annebel Schipper, spokesperson for KWF Kankerbestrijding. "It is simply unfathomable that a memorial site that provides so much support to bereaved families and those affected by cancer would be destroyed in this manner."
Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.
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