The Hague WW2 Time Machine
World War II was a terrible time for The Hague, as it was for many other European cities. On that day, around the same time, I took a panoramic photo.
My photo works like a time machine. You see the places and buildings change over the years, but the memories of what happened remain forever. The city looks different today, but history is still present in the streets and buildings.
January 1st 1945, A German V2-rocket crashed on the Indigostraat in The Hague
March 3th 1945, eight minutes over nine in the morning the allied forced accidentally bombed the neighbourhood Bezuidenhout in The Hague.
March 5th 1943. In the late evening German authorities raid the Jewish orphanage at the Pletterijstraat, The Hague. Kids an adults died in camp Westerbork and camp Sobibor.
March 5th, 1943. On the adres of the "Bandenhuis" (Tire house) lived a jewish family called. Jansje de Groot, born on 1882 in The Hague died in camp Sobibor on March 5th 1943.
March 8th 1945 On the Waalsdorpervlakte the latest mass execution in the Netherlands took place by the Germans. They killed 38 underground fighters. On this place 250-300 people were executed.
April 15th 1943 the Jewish school at the Bezemstraat in The Hague was closed by the city council. A week later the last train with jews departed from The Hague and they announced The Hague "Judenfrei"
April 21th 1943, The Hague was declared "Judenfrei" by The Hague authorities.
April 29th 1944 the former General National Printing House (de Algemene Landsdrukkerij) was robbed by the dutch underground during World War Two. They stole unused id's to give persons in hiding a new identity.
On May 8, 1945, The Hague was liberated by Canadian troops and the Princess Irene Brigade. As in the rest of the Netherlands, a period of purges began in The Hague in which society was denazified. The Duindorp district in Scheveningen, which had b...
On Tuesday May 16, 1944, the 19 Sinti and Roma families also had to leave The Hague. At four in the morning, policemen banged on the doors of the houses in the courtyard. Everyone had to come. Later that day, 112 Sinti and Roma were brought in tru...
November 21th 1944, operation snowflake (operatie sneeuwvlok) started. Man were forced to get out of their houses and brought together in the zoo of The Hague. They were transported to various German camps.
