As early as 5 May 1945, Amsterdam citizens lay down flowers and wreaths where prisoners and civilians had been shot. A lot of people came to pay their respects.
Commemoration of victims of public executions
May 5, 1945 Amsterdam
Since September 1944, the Nazis had frequently shot people in public in retaliation for attacks by the resistance. Sometimes they took prisoners from their cells, other times they picked random people from the vicinity of an attack. Passers-by were forced to watch the executions.
On 12 March 1945, the Nazis shot thirty political prisoners at Weteringplantsoen park. They were murdered in retaliation for the killing of a Sicherheitsdienst official in a house on the nearby Stadhouderskade. The execution claimed another, unintended fatality. Jan Koopmans watched the execution from his hiding place and was hit by a stray bullet.
Shortly after the execution, members of the resistance covered up the victims with Dutch flags.