The Hague Memorial
Artist: Albert (Appie) Drielsma (1937-2014)
Made in 1992. Created on the initiative of a group of former resistance fighters. (Foundation Memorial 1940-1945 The Hague)
Opposite the Peace Palace, on the Carnegieplein, you will find the Hague Memorial 1940-1945. The Foundation Memorial 1940-1945 The Hague was set up in the 1980s by a number of former resistance fighters and aimed to erect a memorial for The Hague. Under the chairmanship of Leendert Mos, the foundation submitted an application for a subsidy to the Dutch government and the municipality of The Hague in April 1987. The municipality agreed to a subsidy of 100,000 euros, which ensured the arrival of the monument. The location for the monument had already been determined: opposite the Peace Palace, the place in The Hague where peace is central.
The monument was made in 1992 by sculptor Appie Drielsma. Drielsma, who was Jewish, survived the war as a boy by going into hiding. He later used this traumatic experience extensively in his work. Drielsma made a series of war monuments during his life, including the National Monument in the Mauthausen concentration camp (1988), the National Memorial in Gulpen (1989) and the Mauthausen Monument in front of the Synagogue in Enschede (1991).
The monument consists of four columns. These columns symbolize the four groups in society at the time of the Second World War: neutral, Roman Catholic, Protestant and Jewish. The Hague Memorial is not a monument that commemorates one specific group of people or a specific event. The monument honors everyone who died in the war.
Opposite the monument is a stone with the following text:
As the capital and seat of government, The Hague was already the target of air attacks on 10 May 1940, the first day of the treacherous attack on the Netherlands. The first destruction took place and the first victims fell. As a result of the war and the occupation, almost twenty thousand of our fellow citizens would lose their lives between May 1940 and the liberation in May 1945 as soldiers, resistance fighters, deportees, forced labourers, prisoners in penitentiaries or concentration camps, victims of bombardments and the last famine winter and above all as persecuted for their race and religion. Among the latter, more than sixteen thousand Jewish fellow citizens who did not survive the extermination camps.
This monument is intended to commemorate all those without distinction who paid with their lives for the delusions from which National Socialism emerged. It silently calls for vigilance against the motives in the human mind that can feed such delusions and lead to such dehumanizing political systems. In this sense, it is intended to be a sign for future generations.
The following texts can be read on the monument:
That tyranny may be banished – 1940 – may their souls be bound in the bundle of life – be not overcome by evil but overcome evil with good – that wounds my heart, 1945
The Hague war victims
All groups in The Hague society suffered casualties during the war. Excluding the Jewish community, approximately 800 residents of The Hague died as a result of war violence. Of these, approximately 200 died during the May days of the war and another 520 died during the Bezuidenhout bombardment on 3 May 1945. In addition, approximately 500 residents of The Hague died in the resistance. During the famine winter of 1945, more than 2,100 victims were killed in The Hague. These victims were from all walks of life, although the majority came from working-class backgrounds (40%).
Within the Jewish community in The Hague, there were more than three times as many victims as all other victims in The Hague combined. Before the Second World War, The Hague had the second largest Jewish community in the Netherlands. One in thirty residents of The Hague was of Jewish descent. At the outbreak of the war, The Hague had a Jewish community of more than 17,000 men, women and children. Between September 1942 and May 1943, the majority of the Jews of The Hague were deported to concentration camps. Between 10,000 and 11,000 Jews from The Hague were killed during the war. After the war, the Jewish community of The Hague had been reduced to less than 2,000 people.
The Remembrance
Every year on May 4th, a commemoration is held at the monument. This commemoration starts at 19:45.
At 20:00, wreaths will be laid by the municipality of The Hague, relatives of the resistance, Jewish organizations, the Haagsche Studenten Vereeniging and students of the Segbroek College.
Sources:
Boom, Bart van der. The Hague in the Second World War. The Hague: SeaPress, 1995.
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