Two men have been arrested after the national war memorial on the Dam in central Amsterdam was defaced early on Sunday morning. Texts were sprayed on the monument in yellow and blue paint at around 5.15am, including a skull. A 39-year-old Polish man was caught shortly afterwards writing on the back of the monument in lipstick. The memorial, unveiled in 1956, commemorates the Dutch war dead and is the site of the annual Remembrance Day ceremony on May 4. It was sprayed with red paint hours before this year’s ceremony, and daubed during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in 2025.