The Oranjehotel, The Hague
The Dutch Museum Digest
The Hague has plenty of great hotels, but the Oranjehotel (Orange Hotel) is definitely one that you won’t want to be spending the night at. The name is actually a pseudonym given to what was a prison that the Germans used to lock up the Dutch during World War II…resistance fighters, political prisoners, children and really just about anyone that the nazis wanted to persecute.
A visit to the hotel is not a light-hearted affair, but rather a poignant reminder of the vagaries of war, and that the lives a lot of us enjoy can be rapidly taken away by the rise of despots and war…a bit heavy, but as my history teacher used to say “you need to know where you’ve been in order to know where you are going”.
The museum brings to life what it was like to end up in this prison, disconnected from what was going on in the outside world, endless days of nothing, although still dreading an early check-out to the nearby dunes and the execution squads or being put on a train to eastern Europe to the internment camps that you were unlikely to return from.
But above all the museum voices the stories of the individuals who were imprisoned, how they got here, how they stood up to the invaders and their small acts of defiance and strength that kept resistance alive.
If you get a chance then do make your way out towards Scheveningen from The Hague to visit this solemn place. Speaking of standing up to dictators and punishing war crimes, in a quirk of fate, you will also be able to make out the prison of the International Criminal Court just behind the Oranjehotel…also waiting for more guests to check-in soon!
