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Most war monuments were erected in the first five to ten years after the war, but not the monument to the resistance and liberation opposite the entrance to the Peace Palace. Some fifty years later, The Hague has its own central war monument. The 1940-1945 Commemoration Monument Foundation took the initiative.

It had been a thorn in the side of the foundation for years that there was no central place in the city of Amsterdam where the victims of the Second World War could be commemorated.

At the end of the 1980s, the foundation started raising money. In addition, the Carnegieplein was chosen as the location together with the municipality. Subsequently, in 1989, six artists were approached to make a design. The monument was to be unveiled in 2000. Given the tight planning, however, this did not succeed. The first round did not produce a design that was supported by all parties (foundation and municipality).

Finally, the Maastricht sculptor Appie Drielsma was invited. He is known for his geometric abstract war memorials, such as those at Mauthausen concentration camp in Germany. Although the commission asked for an obelisk, Drielsma chose a different form. With basalt blocks he built an undulating dyke which symbolises the resistance. On top of this he placed four tall and four shorter square columns, all made of tightly polished, black-grey Portuguese granite. Drielsma selected this material for its hardness and powerful, unyielding appearance. He has inscribed texts from the Dutch National Anthem, the Bible and Jewish prayers in black lettering on the columns. In doing so he pays tribute to the thousands of Jewish victims and the civilian and resistance victims who fell in The Hague.

In the Limburger of 6 July 1991, Drielsma reported that 'It (is) a monument that gives something to a new generation, a warning sign, the verticals stand for the cry: never again!