Herinneringsroute Atlantikwall Den Haag
These public gardens were initially a residential area
These gardens are in an area where all the streets have flower names. Before the Second World War, there were similar streets of 1920s housing here too. They were demolished on the orders of the German occupation authorities to make way for the Atlantic Wall.
The Haagse Beek watercourse, which ran along Sportlaan, was turned into a zigzag anti-tank ditch 10 metres deep and 27 metres wide. The houses immediately surrounding the resulting no man’s land (including the entire Vogelwijk) were evacuated and the municipal authorities arranged for the residents to be rehoused elsewhere. People with economic ties to the city or surrounding area remained in the district, while the rest were accommodated in other parts of the country. The Red Cross Hospital, dating from 1925, was also demolished. The contents were transported on fairground vehicles to the city centre, where they were installed in the Oudemannenhuis (former home for impoverished elderly men) in the Om en Bij. The patients followed.
The hospital reappeared in W.H. Dudok’s post-war reconstruction plans, but in a slightly different location.
Photographed
