Within the framework of a working visit to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Major General Koba Kobaladze, Director of the State Service of Veterans Affairs, together with the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Georgia to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Davit Solomonia, representatives of the Service, members of the Georgian delegation and hosts – representatives of the Netherlands Veterans Institute, visited the cemetery of the brothers of the Georgian soldiers who dies during the uprising against fascism on the island of Texel, laid a wreath at the memorial of Georgian soldiers and paid tribute to their memory.
The members of the delegation visited the museum, where the personal and war items of the participants of the uprising are displayed. They visited the bunkers where the prisoners were hiding.
It should be noted that the Georgian delegation was accompanied by Tika Svanidze-Venko, president of the “Georgian Culture Center in the Kingdom of the Netherlands” who also visited the island of Texel. On May 4, 2023, She initiated initiative and supported to open a memorial in cooperation with the Texel Island City Hall and the Ministry of Defense of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in order to immortalize the memory of the Georgian soldiers who died fighting against fascism, on which the names of the Georgian soldiers buried at the Texel Brothers Cemetery are engraved. Among the fighters buried in the Georgian cemetery of Texel, about ten soldiers from Russian-occupied Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region have been identified. restorer Davit (Devi) Khmaladze is the author of the design of the memorial who is our compatriot and a sculpturer working in the Kingdom of Belgium.
Georgian uprising on Texel – this is how they call the armed uprising of the 822nd Georgian battalion of the Wehrmacht on the island of Texel occupied by Nazi Germany from April 4 to May 20, 1945.
The Uprising on Texel was chronologically the last episode on the European front of World War II and is therefore often referred to as the last battle of Europe. The revolt of Georgian soldiers led by Shalva Loladze began on the night of April 5, 1945 with their attack on German officers. Soon, almost the entire island was in the hands of the rebels, but the landing of the allies was delayed. Additional German forces suppressed the uprising. 565 Georgians and 117 local residents died in heavy fightings.
As a reminder, Major General Koba Kobaladze, Director of the State Service of Veterans’ Affairs, and the representatives of the Service are paying their working visit to the Kingdom of the Netherlands at the official invitation of the Netherlands Veterans Institute. The delegation is also comprised of members of the Defense and Security Committee of the Parliament of Georgia – Gia Benashvili and Aleksandre Tabatadze, Public Defender Levan Ioseliani, representatives of the Maro Makashvili Military Servicemen’s Rehabilitation Center and the Defense and Security Civil Council.
The visit of Koba Kobaladze and the Georgian delegation to the Kingdom of the Netherlands continues.
