Dutch history lesson

For much of World War II, Germany occupied the Netherlands. The Dutch had hoped that they could remain neutral, as they had in the first World War, so their military was unprepared, and they could only resist Germany for four days before surrendering. (Their surrendering also spared Amsterdam from being bombed as heavily as Rotterdam.) The German occupation started in 1940 and lasted until the end of the war.

During the occupation, the Dutch government (including the royalty) fled to England, where they set up a government-in-exile and even broadcast news programs in Dutch on the BBC.

Since almost all of Germany's supplies came through the Netherlands, the country's rail lines were heavily bombed as the war went on. For the last year, the Dutch had very little food, if any. Friends of friends recall living on tulip bulbs and juice made from boiling beets for the last several months of the war.

When the war ended, the queen of the Netherlands, Wilhelmina, decided not to move back into the palace (in The Hague) immediately. Instead, she found a more modest house nearby where she lived for several months, until the Dutch people began to forgive her for fleeing. (In contrast, the Danish royalty stayed in Denmark, and stories say that their king wore a Jewish star in protest. The Dutch thought and still do think very highly of this and of the strong Danish resistance, although to be fair to the Dutch, the Netherlands was more strategically located for Germany.) Anyway, the queen lived in this house from August 1, 1945, until May 1, 1946.

This house is now owned by Casey's sister's boyfriend's father, who invited us to stay there for a couple of nights while they (Casey's sister, her boyfriend, her daughter, and her daughter's best friend) were visiting last month. The house, technically in Scheveningen, is indeed not particularly ostentatious from the outside, but it is still very nice. The style is called "drie onder een kop" (three under one cap), which is sort of like a three-house town house. There's a small front yard and a garden in back, and by European standards it is very spacious, but it's true that there are larger mansions on the same street. And, yes, it's definitely smaller than the palace.

The photo for today was taken in the front foyer in the house. It's a series of photos of Queen Wilhelmina's daughter unveiling a plaque honoring the house. (Like all photos on this blog, clicking on the image takes you to a larger version.) The top right photo is recognizable as the front of the house.