Het Oranjehotel: from Nazi prison to National monument
“In this prison / there is no scum / but Dutch glory / damn it!”
Introduction
Het Oranjehotel was the prison established by the Nazis in Scheveningen, Netherlands during World War II. Over 25,000 people were detained in this prison, including members of the Dutch Resistance, Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, and individuals accused of economic offenses. The name “Oranjehotel” was given by the Dutch as a tribute to the imprisoned Resistance members, while the Germans called it “Polizeigefängnis”.
Doodenboek (Death Book)
The prisoners
Under extremely harsh conditions, the prison housed Dutch people from various backgrounds, including soldiers, students, artists, politicians, and clergy. Political prisoners and those arrested based on ethnicity, philosophy of life, or sexual orientation were also held there. Specific resistance groups were imprisoned here, such as De Geuzen (see last week’s blogpost), as well as secret agents betrayed in the German’s Englandspiel. There were numerous instances of torture and death of prisoners. Many of the detainees were sentenced to long stays in German camps or prisons, and more than 250 people were executed on the nearby Waalsdorpervlakte.
Doodencel 601 (Death Cell 601)
After the war
After the war, the prison briefly served as a detention center for collaborators and members of the Nazi regime. In 1947, the Oranjehotel Committee was established to create a lasting memorial at the prison site. The Oranjehotel Monument, including "Doodencel 601" (Death Cell 601) and commemorative plaques, was created.
The Oranjehotel Foundation was formed to manage the monument and organize annual commemorations. In recent years, efforts have been made to preserve and renovate the prison as an authentic monument.
Cell 601 (see video) was a death cell where inmates waited before being taken to the execution site. The cell has been preserved in its original state and contains inscriptions by prisoners. Several well-known individuals, such as Bernardus IJzerdraat (Geuzen leader), Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema (Soldier of Orange) and Corrie ten Boom (Christian hider of Jews) and George Maduro (Madurodam was dedicated to him), were imprisoned in the Oranjehotel.
The prison complex remained in use until 2009 and was opened as a Commemorative Center in 2019. Visitors to the Oranjehotel National Monument can learn about the stories of the prisoners and experience the conditions they endured. The permanent exhibition emphasizes the importance of remembering the sacrifices made during times of injustice, oppression, and persecution.
National Monument Oranjehotel
The Crystal Butterfly and Het Oranjehotel
The Oranjehotel is mentioned twice in The Crystal Butterfly and the last time is the most important one. Edda visits the prison after the war when her father is detained there as a member of the National Socialist movement.
A snippet:
She was the only visitor with her father in a large room with small tables each with two chairs. Guards stood at the two entrance doors, listening to every word they would exchange and ready to grab the prisoner by the arms should he so much as utter a favorable word about the NSB.
Edda fumbled with the button on her jacket, racking her brain what to say. Her father stared at the Formica table. He sat very still, hunched and withdrawn into himself. Edda knew she would have to open the conversation.
“How are you, Father?”
“Good.”
Better be honest. “You don’t look like you’re ‘good’, Father.”
She saw him shift slightly in his chair.
“What do you expect me to say then, Eddaline?”
“You could perhaps start with asking me why I am here?” she said it as lightly as possible.
“There was no need to come. I left everything in your name.” A toneless, dead voice.
“That’s not what I mean, Father. I needn’t have come here to find that out. Duifje and Jan Sipkema already told me.”
Later Edda thought it must have been the mentioning of his solicitor that made the change. Her father looked up and Edda almost jumped back in her chair. His eyes, her father’s eyes, once merry and blue like Duifje’s, were colorless, lifeless, disinterested. His soul was dead. What had happened to her formidable Papa? And that was what she blurted out.
“Papa, what has happened to you?”
“What do you mean? I was arrested. As I should have been. So, all’s well.”
National Monument Oranjehotel
