On Wednesday, May 21, 2025, Ted Barris brings the story of Dutch Liberation in WWII – based on his bestselling book Days of Victory – to the Newmarket Historical Society.

Every May 4 since 1945, during silent marches in every hamlet and city in the Netherlands, the Dutch continue to acknowledge the sacrifice that thousands made, in particular, their “liberators,” Canadian soldiers, sailors and airmen. More than 7,600 Canadians died in the nine-month campaign to liberate the Netherlands. The Dutch have never forgotten that sacrifice.

Ted’s Days of Victory talk/presentation offers accounts of Canadians’ participation in the liberation of Holland – Operation Market Garden, the Scheldt estuary, taking the German surrender at Wageningen and the famous food drops of Operation Mana in the 1945 “Hunger Winter,” spearheaded by the Royal Canadian Air Force in the final days of the war.

Ted Barris has published 22 non-fiction books, half of them wartime histories. His book The Great Escape: A Canadian Story won the 2014 Libris Award as Best Non-Fiction Book in Canada. His book Dam Busters: Canadian Airmen and the Secret Raid Against Nazi Germany received the 2018 NORAD Trophy from the RCAF Association. And his book Rush to Danger: Medics in the Line of Fire was long-listed for the 2020 Charles Taylor Prize for Non-Fiction in Canada. And his book Battle of the Atlantic: Gauntlet to Victory was published in 2022. And in October 2024, Barris was appointed Member of the Order of Canada.