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Of the dozens of war memorials in our country, most remind us of the horrors and victims of the Second World War. This also applies to the many war monuments in The Hague. Sporadically, you come across monuments commemorating soldiers who died during the so-called police action in the former Dutch East Indies and New Guinea (1945-1962).

The fact that this tribute has taken so long is of course due to the sensitive history of the police actions. Denial of this war and shame played a major role. As is often the case in history, opinions have changed over time. In 2002, the more than 160 soldiers from The Hague who died in the East were given a memorial.
The monument for servicemen from The Hague who fell in the former Dutch East Indies and New Guinea 1945-1962 has been realised at the initiative of the Vereniging Oud Militairen Indiëgangers (VOMI) (Association of Former Military Indians of The Hague). They expressed their wish for a commemorative sign to the municipality and on the advice of Stroom the graphic designer Gert Dumbar was asked to make a design.

Although this designer from The Hague is known for his splashy use of colour and sometimes fierce design, he has worked in an extremely restrained manner on this monument. On an eight-metre-long, dark-grey natural stone memorial plaque, he has inscribed the names of the fallen soldiers in clear lettering. The names are shaped in such a way that one can read a line of poetry by Anton Kortweg:

On what ground were they laid.
In foreign soil.'

The monument is located on the right-hand side of the lawn in front of the water feature in the Scheveningse Bosjes opposite the Indisch Monument, where the war victims in the Dutch East Indies 1942-1945 are commemorated. Because of this location, the monuments complement each other particularly well.