Monument Loosduinen, Loosduinse Hoofdstraat
Artist/designer: Pieter Biesiot (1890-1980) and M.M. Oosenbrug
Unveiled on April 26, 1955 by then mayor Frans Schokking.
On the Loosduinse Hoofdstraat, on the corner of the Lippe Biesterveldweg and the Bram Frosstraat, you will find the liberation monument in memory of 24 Loosduinse resistance fighters who lost their lives during the Second World War.
Immediately after 1945, a wooden cross was placed on this spot to commemorate the fallen resistance fighters. The current monument was created on the initiative of the Stichting Bevrijdingsmonument Loosduinen and took the place of the old wooden cross on 26 April 1955. The monument was made by Pieter Biesiot and M.M. Oosenbrug.
Pieter Biesiot was a sculptor, furniture designer and draftsman from The Hague. Biesiot designed several grave and war monuments. His work often has a religious character. M.M. Oosenbrug was a stonemason from The Hague who was active in the resistance during the war. Oosenbrug is also one of the founders of the National Remembrance Foundation of The Hague.
The Loosduinen monument consists of a stone obelisk with a bronze phoenix rising from the ashes. This phoenix symbolizes immortality and is a tribute to the resistance fighters who died. The names of the 24 fighters are on the front of the obelisk. Many other resistance fighters are also honored in the street names of the streets in this neighborhood, such as Rú Paré, Johannes Frans Le Griep and Anton de Kom.
Loosduinse Resistance
In Loosduinen, several resistance groups were active during the Second World War. The first and oldest resistance group of Loosduinen was led by Jan Willem Kempff. This group, known as “Bijzondere Vrijwillige Landstorm” (BVL), consisted of ex-military personnel and was founded after the First World War to be able to take action in the event of unrest.
The BVL was banned by the German occupiers after May 1940, making it an illegal resistance group. The group’s weapons and ammunition were hidden in the orangery of the Bloemendaal foundation where Kempff worked as a gardener’s hand. Kempff also tried to keep the group’s capital out of the hands of the Germans. To do this, he went to the Nutsspaarbank in Loosduinen, where he came into contact with Cees Schüngel, who also led a resistance group in Loosduinen. Schüngel placed the BVL’s capital in a separate account. This contact between Kempff and Schüngel led to a connection between the two resistance groups. A connection was also established with Martinus Staamer’s resistance group. The idea arose to merge the various groups into one group. However, this was difficult to achieve due to the different methods of the three separate groups. Eventually, a merger was achieved on 19 March 1941.
Two days later, on 21 March 1941, Kempff was arrested by the SD. On the same day and in the days that followed, many other members of the resistance groups were arrested, including Staamer (arrested on 24 March 1941) and Rokus van Dalen (arrested on 24 April 1941). After the interrogation, the resistance fighters were taken to the Scheveningen prison. Some time later, they were transferred to Camp Amersfoort.
On 11 April 1942, a large trial took place in Camp Amersfoort. 63 members of the OD (Ordedienst), including a number of resistance fighters from Loosduinen, were sentenced to death. On 1 May 1942, the entire group was transferred to Sachsenhausen, where they were shot on 2 and 3 May. The Loosduinen victims were Jan Willem Kempff, R.E. Zwolsman, J.H. Boon, N. van den Brink, Rokus van Dalen, C. van Otterlo and Martinus Staamer.
In addition to large resistance groups, there were also a few resistance fighters active individually or in a smaller collective in Loosduinen. One of these fighters was Pieter Nicolaas de Zoete. In the autumn of 1940, De Zoete made a plan to sail to England via France, Spain and Portugal. However, he was captured by the occupier in early 1941 and put in the Scheveningen prison.
On 17 March 1942, a session was held at the Naval Court to decide on the fate of De Zoete. He was accused of trying to travel to England and of bringing a letter hidden in a fountain pen, containing secret German information, to an address in Vichy. The death penalty was demanded for the first charge, and a prison sentence of 2.5 years for the hidden letter. However, the judges decided on a 3-year prison sentence.
Two months later, this verdict was overturned and the case was brought before the court again. This time, De Zoete was sentenced to five years. This verdict was also declared overturned a short time later. De Zoete was tried again. The third trial took place at the Feldgericht in Amsterdam. During this trial, De Zoete was sentenced to death. On 31 July 1942, he was shot in the capital.
Another individual resistance fighter was the preacher Frederik Karel van Evert. Van Evert resisted the German occupier both in word and in deed. He brought many Jewish members of the community to safety. The day before his arrest, Van Evert had even visited Camp Westerbork to try to free some Jewish residents.
On 22 August 1942, the minister was arrested and taken to the Binnenhof for interrogation. He then spent three weeks in the Scheveningen prison. In September, he was transferred to Camp Amersfoort where he was put to work in an Arbeitskommando that had to build a shooting range. For the minister, who was not used to physical labour, this work was very hard. Moreover, the other conditions were also very bad. In order to find some relief during this hard time, a group of imprisoned ministers regularly held secret services. Van Evert attended these secret meetings and also chaired a few of them. On 4 December 1942, the ministers also took a great risk by baptising a prisoner who had been sentenced to death.
Around the turn of the year 1942/1943, the new camp in Vught was opened. This led to the prisoners of Camp Amersfoort being transferred to Vught, so that the camp in Amersfoort could be renovated. In January 1943, the prisoners, including Van Evert, were transferred. The prisoners hoped and expected that they would end up in better circumstances. However, this was a great disappointment. The circumstances in Camp Vught were extremely bad. There was no food or drink, and blankets were also missing. After a few months, the circumstances improved, but 202 prisoners had succumbed in the meantime. Frederik Karel van Evert was one of the victims.
There was also resistance at the administrative level in Loosduinen. An example of this were the municipal officials Theo van Daalhoff and J.A. Dek. They removed personal identity cards of Jews from the Civil Registry, so that they could not be traced during raids. Van Daalhoff and Dek are also said to have stolen many ration cards from the Civil Registry and then distributed them to Jewish residents of The Hague and Loosduinen.
Van Daalhoff and Dek were arrested on April 11, 1944, at the municipal office on Fahrenheitstraat, because of so-called “Deutschfeindlichkeit.” They then ended up in Camp Amersfoort. After that, they were transferred to other camps. Theo van Daalhoff eventually ended up at the Aussenkommando Dalum, at the Neuengamme concentration camp. He died there on February 18, 1945 from physical weakness.
Dek survived the war. Due to open tuberculosis, Dek was transferred from Camp Vught to the Red Cross Hospital in The Hague. Here he recovered from his illness. After the war, Dek continued his work for the municipality.
The monument also bears the names of two resistance fighters from Loosduin who were active in the Dutch merchant navy. The first is Willem Hotze Arie Mostert. Mostert was an assistant engineer on the Alphard. On 12 July 1941, this ship was attacked by a German bomber. Mostert was the only crew member who was seriously injured in this attack. After arriving on shore in Port Said (Egypt), Mostert was taken to hospital. He succumbed to his injuries seventeen days later. He was buried at the British Protestant Cemetery in Port Said.
The second resistance fighter at sea was Jan De Nooy. De Nooy was 4th mate on board the ss. Le Maire. This ship had left the port of Tjilatjap, on the south coast of Java, on 27 February 1942. The ship was part of a large evacuation to remove civilians and soldiers from the island. The ship was probably loaded with evacuees and was on its way to Bunbury, Australia. On 1 March 1942, the ship was torpedoed by a Japanese fleet. All passengers and the ship subsequently disappeared without a trace.
The Remembrance
Every year on May 4th, a commemoration is held at the Loosduinen liberation monument. This commemoration starts at 19:45.
Footage of previous commemorations:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39aswUeskWM
Sources:
Boom, Bart van der. The Hague in the Second World War. The Hague: SeaPress, 1995.
www.4en5mei.nl
www.ogs.nl
www.hetverhaalbewaard.nl