The Dutch are following a day of remembrance with a day of celebration, as the Netherlands marks Liberation Day.

The country is taking a national holiday to celebrate this day in 1945 when the Nazis were pushed out of Holland.

Picnics, marches and festivities are being held in honour of the anniversary, as part of week-long commemorations and celebrations marking the end of the Second World War.

Dutch Crown Prince Willem Alexander presented the 5th of May Lecture in the southern city of Den Bosch, which is held every year in the Netherlands.

Meanwhile in Amsterdam, Mayor Job Cohen lit the Flame of Freedom torch at the Museum Square behind the Rijks Museum.

More than 100,000 Dutch Jews were deported and killed in Nazi death camps. Hundreds of thousands more Dutch citizens were sent to Germany as forced labourers. About 30,000 of them died.

Governor General Adrienne Clarkson is leading a Canadian delegation that includes 700 veterans at the week's events. She is attending the lighting of the Permanent Liberation Flame at the National Liberation Monument in Wageningen.

The veterans marched past the nearby Hotel de Wereld, where Canadian Gen. Charles Foulkes watched as occupation forces signed the capitulation treaty and surrendered on May 5, 1945.

The veterans still carry stark memories of the last few months of the war, which became known as "Hunger Winter," when tens of thousands of Dutch succumbed to starvation and cold.

One Dutch survivor, now a Canadian citizen, told CTV's Tom Kennedy about the struggle to survive day to day, and meal to meal.

"Someone just in front of me collapsed. And I fed him half my sandwich and he'd get up and walk again. It was like putting gas in a car," she said.

The fight to liberate the country lasted a punishing nine months, costing more than 7,000 Canadian lives. Survivors still speak today of how much the sacrifices of the Canadian soldiers meant.

Sunday marks the 60th anniversary of Europe's official declaration of victory.

U.S. President George Bush will be in Magraten on that day, to attend ceremonies at the only American war cemetery in the Netherlands.

More than 10,000 people are expected to attend the hour-long ceremony at the site where more than 8,300 American, British, Canadian and Mexican troops are buried.

Bush's overnight visit to the region is expected to draw protest from critics of his foreign policy who plan to also converge there from across the Netherlands as well as France, Belgium and Germany.

Politics have already dogged Prime Minister Paul Martin's plans to attend this year's VE-Day events in Europe.

Last month, he upset veterans when he announced that concern over an election meant he would not be attending events in Europe this year. On Tuesday, Martin said he had brokered a deal that would see all four party leaders attend a final VE-Day ceremony next week.

On Monday, the day after opening ceremonies at the new Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, Martin will fly to the Netherlands for a farewell dinner to veterans.

The opposition leaders will go with him, agreeing that during the trip their parties will hold off on any moves that might bring down the Liberal minority government.

With reports from CTV's Tom Kennedy and The Canadian Press