On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Captain C
Continuing with photos from my visit to the Verzetsmuseum (Resistance Museum) in Amsterdam last October. In this set we’ll see some propaganda posters from both sides, and a nod to some of those who fought (and perished) in the resistance. By the way, did anyone notice yet that this visit was on a Friday the 13th?
Pro-Nazi propaganda from the occupation. The German occupiers were very much hoping the Dutch would enjoy being obedient little Aryans and thus die for the expansion of the Reich.
Pro-Nazi propaganda posters.
Allied propaganda leaflets and suchlike. The ‘V’ is for Victory.
A printing press used by the Resistance. Making underground newsletters, pamphlets, and the like was necessary and very dangerous work done by the resistance.
A member of the resistance murdered by the Nazis for putting out anti-Nazi materials.
It is important to remember that members of the people colonized by the Dutch were active in the resistance despite their (entirely reasonable) desire to get out of the empire after the war.
JPL
The posters are a sad reminder of a monster that wanted to rule the continent. I have no doubt that trump would put his face on posters and demand that they be hung in schools if he had the chance.
Ramalama
Today I learned that Indonesia played a role in the resistance. Wow.
stinger
Fascinating. Also, what JPL and Ramalama said.
Chief Oshkosh
@Ramalama: Yep, I just learned about that, too, in my recent trip to that museum. The entire museum is well done, including this section. Lots of detail.
way2blue
My first visit to the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC—we were led to the elevator by a tiny white haired man who explained the layout of the floors, but also noted “It happened fast”. Meaning the flip from a functioning German government to the horror that followed. Fairly sobering warning.
If any BJ jackals are ever in the Salzburg area—take a side trip to the Dokumentationszentrum Obersalzsberg just below the Berchtesgarten. Along with the exhibits & tunnels where Hitler had planned to shelter, is a room showing a short film—mostly interviews of the townspeople recalling the transition from Hitler renting a farmhouse in Obersalzsberg during the summer to annexing farmland for his palace grounds as his power grew. Also sobering…
Msb
Resistance museums across Europe are very much worth a visit, especially when you recognize how many of these brave people died in the process, at what seems to me now terribly young ages. I recently saw 12 portraits in pencil of leaders of the resistance in Denmark, drawn in moments of relaxation or happiness by someone who knew them. About three quarters didn’t survive the war. And it was worse in Norway, where the Germans didn’t feel it necessary to act like benevolent rulers.
In addition, Denmark created small memorials all over the country, at street level on walls or in doorways, recording where Danes were killed and at what ages. There’s a tablet near my church, for 3 men, aged from about 40 to 19, who died during the German retreat in 1945, the day after what we now celebrate as Liberation Day. We don’t forget.
Ramalama
@Msb: Interesting.
Do you live in Denmark?
Captain C
Many thanks for all the kind comments on this series. The first one went up while I was in the Netherlands–normally I do not go nearly every year, but there was a family reunion this year in The Hague and Rotterdam, and I couldn’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (35 relatives and spouses in all, 3 generations descending from my mom’s father’s father starting with my mom’s generation). At the reunion, I did find out that my Opa and his three siblings were all involved in the resistance to varying degrees (and had a few tight escapes along the way); I think my (great-)Oom Bas met his future wife in the process.
I was glad to find out, because as noted in that thread, an occupation of the sort endured by the Netherlands from 1940 to 1945 isn’t possible without a fairly sizable amount of collaboration and acquiescence.
Also, my Great Grandfather was apparently busted for a sermon he preached in 1941, but his wife, a formidable woman who would probably have run a company or nonprofit had she been born a couple generations later, went down to the detention camp and convinced the commandant that he was too stupid to understand what he was saying, that he was just repeating things he’d heard (this was false).