The home of International Criminal Court is in Den Haag (The Hague) and a city the RAF bombed trying to stop V-rockets being fired at London. Instead of hitting the launch sites hidden in the forest the British mistakenly hit the city instead, with the by now familiar carnage. In the Silent Cacophony post before this one, from Dalston Library [click], a elderly Turkish man from a military family looked closely at the sculptures and stated “Occasionally there might be a ‘Just War’, but I tell you, almost all the wars are simply criminal”, seemed appropriate to link it to this blog post. Silent Cacophony November 11, Bezuidenhout/Haagse Bos, Den Haag (the Netherlands) Three weeks earlier Kim Zeevalk and Jitske Anker two 16 year-old pupils of the Montessori school next to the forest and me spend a Friday morning in the archives of the city. Reading about the air raids and the devastating effect it had. With everything we read in mind, we started writing. 7.30 pm. At the entrance of the Hague forest 25 people turned up for an evening of history, remembrance of the Civilians that were killed during the Airstrikes of the RAF on the Bezuidenhout area, poetry, stories, music and performance. The evening was divided in a walk with professional guides and a poetry reading in a sitting room. After I welcomed the people and told them about the bigger Event that was happening in 4 other countries and the connection between The Hague and the English cities that were bombed from amongst other places this forest.
Peter van Osch the forester took over and we walked into the forest. After a short general introduction to the forest in the Second World War, he took us into the forest to the canal that used to be the place where the launchers of V2's were located. The walk ended at an open spot, where Kim and Jitske and the musicians Timo de la Mar (guitar, voice) and Jimi Hellinga (violin and hurdu gurdu) had already arrived. They started playing as soon as they saw the people coming. Kim started with her performance. At the entrance of the forest she had given everyone a sign around the neck with the name of someone who died during the air raid. She named the people and picked one name and wrote a fictitious story around this one person. It was very impressive, even more so with sound of the music. Than Jitske took over, in four short poems she described different stages of the attack and what came after that. The devastation, the lack of water, firemen and the Germans that took advantage. Timo followed the poetry with a song and I finished with a poem (see film). After the performances Danny Versmoren the second guide took over, he took the walk on to the Bezuidenhout. Telling about this area before the war, it only was build a few decades before. During the walk he showed what was saved and where the new buildings were. The walk stopped at the monument for the victims of the attack. From there Danny took us to the end of the walk. Like poets did during the occupation, the evening finished with a performance in a living room like setting. With Timo de la Mar en Jimi Hellinga I did a programme with poetry, poetrypop and songs (see second film). Opening this part with a poem of Joost Speenhof, the poet that died during the air raid, and Bergman the poet who told me a few years ago about the Poetry salons he read his work during the war. People really were impressed by the walk, the stories and the poetry and enjoyed the last bit. The audience was a good mix of young people and older people. www.harryzevenbergen.nl