‘The last male heir of the house of Bavaria Schagen
Here feeds the old stick (stem?) in the wake of Duke Albert,
Fame may short with fear tell of acts of war,
Need cheers here of joy
In praise of Jakob-Frederik all days in the following centuries.
MDCCLXXII’
Oude Mannenhuis (Old Men’s Home), Oude Molstraat.
The estate was built in the 1770s in accordance with the wishes of Jacob Frederik van Beieren van Schagen.
Jacob was the last male descendant of Duke Albert of Bavaria, Count of Holland, Zealand and Hainaut (1336-1404), who was also known to have opened an old men’s home.
The building was still used as an old men’s home until 1980.
Since then it has been carefully restored, and is now owned by the Stichting Noodopvang Haaglanden (Haaglanden Emergency Shelter Foundation). The building is listed as a national monument.
National war memorial in the Waalsdorpervlakte (Waalsdorp Plain) in the dunes. Officially it is in the municipality of Wassenaar, but as it is of much importance to the history and inhabitants of The Hague, i include it here.
‘Here, many compatriots made the sacrifice of their lives for your freedom. Enter this place with due reverence’
The four crosses were erected as wooden crosses on 3 May 1946 to commemorate the more than 250 people who were shot here by the German occupiers between 3 March 1941 and 8 March 1945.
The victims were originally held in the so-called Oranjehotel, a prison in Scheveningen (The Hague) which is a national monument today. The original wooden crosses are now in the Oranjehotel; the present crosses are bronze.
The fallen were amongst others individual and organised resistance fighters, members of the Dutch Communist Party (CPN), journalists and editors of newspapers Het Parool, Trouw and Vrij Nederland, and people who helped people in hiding (such as Jews and other persecuted people).
A memorial ceremony is held here every year on 4 May (National Remembrance Day).
Originally the Waalsdorpervlakte was a somewhat desolate place with sand drifts. Today it is a very green and lovely place where the blackbirds and nightingales sing in May, almost a monument to the deceptiveness of spring.
Personally, i don’t think much of military honour and glorification of the fatherland, especially because the roots of the catastrophe that happened in Europe at that time, are still present in Dutch (and indeed European) society and politics; especially those who demand freedom for themselves at the expense of the freedom of others, whether socially, politically or commercially.
Disasters are not prevented by singing the national anthem. But when the pomp of remembrance is fading, i always find it a very moving place for its horrible history.
It is not a reminder that such horrors should never happen again, it is a warning that they might happen again.
Bench in a park, Stadhoudersplantsoen. During World War II, a tank trench was dug here by the Germans.
Now the area is a park and you can enjoy the sunshine on this bench. It had sunk into the ground a bit when i took the first pictures in 2020, but now it has been repaired.
The armrest in the middle doesn’t just give stability, it also prevents the homeless from sleeping here during summer, as society doesn’t want to be confronted with the dark side of its problems.
The original house was built in the mid-seventeenth century, but was rebuilt and renovated during the Napoleonic era, on behalf of the then Maatschappij voor natuur- en letterkunde Diligentiâ (Society for Natural Sciences and Literature Diligentiâ).
At the time i was making pictures of the building, the corona pandemic had just started. At that unfortunate time, Rotterdam comedian Patrick Laureij was performing there.
The last picture is a recent update without Laureij’s face on the façade.
House at Stille Veerkade, built around 1900 in a neo-classicist style. Until April 1942 the Jewish Prins family lived here.
The father, a bookseller, was born in 1897 in The Hague; he stayed in the Beugelen labour camp for Jewish men near Staphorst in the autumn of 1942, was deported to Westerbork transit camp, and died in Central Europe in August 1943.
The mother was born in 1899 in Brzesko (Yiddish: Brigel) in Poland and died in Auschwitz concentration camp in October 1942.
Their son, a shop assistant, was born in The Hague in 1921 and died in Auschwitz concentration camp in September 1942.
Their eldest daughter, a warehouse attendant, was born in 1926 in The Hague and died in Auschwitz concentration camp in September 1942.
Their youngest daughter, still a toddler, was born in 1936 in The Hague and died in October 1942 in Auschwitz concentration camp.
Mescidi Aksa Mosque, Wagenstraat. It was built as a synagogue in the 1840s after a design by Arend Roodenburg (1804-1884), who was also responsible for the current Hotel des Indes at the Lange Voorhout. Built in a grand neoclassicist style, the synagogue was meant to accommodate the large Jewish community living in the area around the Wagenstraat and beyond. It was consecrated in 1844. In 1941 a fire was set in the building by members of the NSNAP, the Dutch Nazi party, to celebrate Hitler’s birthday. In 1943 the synagogue was confiscated by the German occupiers. First it was used to store Jewish goods stolen by the Germans, and later on it was used as a boxing school.
Only very few of The Hague’s Jews survived the German occupation. They reconsecrated the synagogue after WWII, but in the 1970s they could no longer maintain the building for the dwindling Jewish religious community, and they sold it to the city authorities. Meanwhile, the expanding Turkish Islamic community needed a larger central place of worship. Negotiations with the city authorities were unsuccessful and in 1978 they occupied the empty and dilapidated synagogue. In 1981 it was bought by the Turkish Islamic Association. The two minarets were erected in 1987. The former synagogue is a listed building (a ‘Rijksmonument’).
Villa Next Door 3 