A daily dose of Rotterdam since august 2019
Rotterdam was rebuilt after the Second World War, many of the first buildings were for trade and the financial world. This is the entrance to one of those buildings located at Westblaak. Made for a good first impression!
The Germans bomded Rotterdam on May 14th 1940. These big lights did light up the sky to mark the border of where the firestorm did stop. Photographed in 2007, location Heliport.
Not many people on the street but I met this person, Karel Willem Frederik Marie Doorman. He was a Dutch rear admiral in WWII. The English name for his rank is Rear Admiral. Known to the Allies as Admiral Doorman. Doorman died during the Battle of the Java Sea aboard the light cruiser De Ruyter. To commemorate him the Dutch Royal Navy, named a ship after him, four times, in 1946, 1948, 1991 and 2015.
Note: K. Doorman, Utrecht, April 23, 1889 – Javazee, February 28, 1942.
About 300 of these stones – Stolpersteine or stumble stones, a project of the German artist Gunter Demnig – are placed in the pavement in front of the houses where the Jewish victims used to live in Rotterdam. Most of these victims were deported to camps as Auschwitz, Sobibor, Bergen-Belsen or Mauthausen. I photographed these stones in the pavement of the Goudsesingel, not far from where I live.
P.S. About 61.000 of these stones spread over 22 countries are placed. All bear the names of Jewish victims. Here you can find a list of the stones in Rotterdam >>