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Amsterdam’s Weteringsplantsoen is a lovely little park situated in the southwest part of the city.
On my way to a tour at the Heineken Experience, I had some time to kill. Passing this small park, I decided to take a detour through it and take some pictures of the adjacent canal and the beautiful fall foliage. Something, however, caught my eye before I made it to the canal.
A statue of a man laying down.
Since I could not read Dutch, I snapped a few photos and decided to do some investigation a bit later.
What I found was quite interesting.
The official name of this place, Fusilladeplaats Rozenoord, can be translated into English as “the firing squad place”.
During World War II, this rose garden was the site where German occupation forces shot and killed more than 100 Dutch civilians, many of them resistance fighters, during a four month period. While this was a widely known event, no one ever faced trail for the crimes.
Even though the events are commemorated on May 4, every year, it was decided that a memorial be erected to pay homage to those who lost their lives. This monument’s inscription reads:
Op deze plaats werden in de laatste maanden van de Tweede Wereldoorlog meer dan 100 Nederlanders door de Duitse bezetter gefusilleerd (At this place, during the last months of the Second World War, the German occupiers shot dead more than 100 Dutch people)
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Fusilladeplaats Rozenoord
- Address: 1072 AD Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Hours: 24 hours, daily
- Admission: free