Text

'Many fell - as defenceless - as culms before the scythe - a few stood - and sang - an old wisdom - the old wisdom - of freedom - that trembles in every living heart.'

Referring to freedom, life and death, this poem by Maurits Mok commemorates the 663 people employed by PTT who died in the Second World War. The poem is on the pedestal of the monument erected for them, which was unveiled on 4 May 1950 by the then Director-General of PTT.

Initially, the memorial stood at the beginning of the Zeestraat, near the location of the main administration building of the PTT. However, when this building was sold to the Institute of Social Studies in 1993, the sculpture by the famous Amsterdam sculptor Hildo Krop was moved to the Nassauplein. Krop was one of the most important representatives of the Amsterdam School (1916-1926). That is why his name is primarily linked to the capital. But his sculptures can be found all over the country.

Like much of his work, the tall memorial has great symbolic expressiveness. A large rectangular plinth is placed on top of a smaller intermediate plinth with a plate and a column. On the slab, on either side of the column, lie a man and a woman. Like the cut culms between them, they symbolise the fallen. In the capital, which crowns the column, Krop has depicted the triumph of good over evil with St George and the dragon. The man on top is the personification of the resurrection. In addition, the proud, strong man also embodies the intransigence with which freedom was fought for. He looks balanced, powerful and without false pretensions: an ordinary man from the people. This figure in particular is typical of Krop's socially-charged sculpture.