Exhibition texts in English

Panel 1: Introduction

In 2025, the Netherlands will celebrate 80 years of freedom. On May 5, 1945, the Netherlands was liberated from German occupation. During this occupation period, the Oranjehotel functioned as a political prison. People who resisted the Nazi regime were detained, interrogated, and sentenced here. Living conditions were poor and intimidation, torture, and other forms of violence were never far away. After the war, the Scheveningen cell barracks became an internment camp for collaborators, who, awaiting their trial, lived in the same appalling conditions.  

The Oranjehotel and many other former places of terror are proof that dictatorial regimes, lawlessness, and political imprisonment are of all times and places. This exhibition gives an overview of some of these prisons throughout time. Through words and images, the following panels tell about the daily existence of the prisoners, their mutual relations, and how they try to keep in touch with the outside world and vice-versa; how family members, supporters, and interest groups try to support the prisoners as much as possible, and how they are, or are not, remembered and commemorated.