Artwork Data
Artwork Location
Address
Parallelweg, Den Haag
City district
Centrum
GPS data
52.06841733706, 4.3186844790005 View on map
Artwork Description
Text
On 29 March 1945, members of the resistance molested and disarmed two German soldiers on Parallelweg. A day later, resistance fighters stopped a column of German Ordnungspolizei trucks and misled the enemy. On 31 March, as a reprisal, the occupying forces took a group of men and boys from the prison in Scheveningen and brought them to the place where the resistance actions had taken place. At the same time they arrested a few random local residents. Twelve people were shot without mercy near the fence between Parallelweg and railway tracks.
Immediately after the end of the Second World War, the residents of The Hague erected monuments to commemorate five years of hardship, horror and murder by the Nazis. Often the memorials were erected on the locations where civilians had been shot.
This was also the case on Parallelweg. A year after the horrific murder of the twelve innocent citizens, local residents and relatives held a simple memorial service. With a sign on the fence, a black wooden cross and the Dutch flag, they honoured the dead. In 1953, the sign was replaced by a marble slab. Because this plate fell victim to vandals in 1962, the current plate was attached to the fence in the same year. The text on it reads:
In memory of the 12 Dutch people who were executed here by the Nazis on 31 March 1945.
Because the traffic situation changed dramatically in the 1980s, the memorial site looks different today. A low fence separates Parallelweg from the tram and train tracks. In front of this fence, in the wide pavement, is a wooden pole with the marble slab. Behind it are a stone edging and four metal posts, from which wreaths can be hung. Finally, a commemorative tile with the text:
Living together, moving forward together.
Station neighbourhood 4 May 1988'.