City of Peace and Justice

The Scheveningen district of the Hague still retains a few abandoned WW 2 German defense bunkers, part of the Nazi "Atlantic Wall."  Nearby is a marker where 300 members of the Dutch resistance were shot by the Nazis.

It's sobering to stand here on the beach and try to imagine what it must have been like to be invaded and occupied by the Nazis.

Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands on May 10, 1940. Four days later the Luftwaffe bombed Rotterdam. The bombing destroyed much of Rotterdam's medieval city center, leaving almost 80,000 people homeless. In response to the German threats to destroy other Dutch cites, one by one, the Netherlands - which lacked air defenses - surrendered a few days later.  The Nazis stayed from 1940 to 1945.

 Rotterdam after the German bombing, spring 1940.

abandoned WW2 German bunkers on the beach