Longread: War in the Neighborhood
During the occupation years, German soldiers were stationed in the Transvaal neighborhood. They stayed in school buildings, houses and barracks, and from those places they defended themselves with heavy anti-aircraft fire and with the thick walls of the bunker. The Transvaal neighborhood in Leiden was important during World War II, as it was located between important train tracks and a canal, which had to be properly guarded. The tracks were particularly important, as they were used to transport the V2 rockets that bombed London. Residents living next to the tracks often heard the wagons with munition drive by in the middle of the night.
There were factories in the neighborhood that provided many residents with a job, such as the sugar processing factory Pel and the cannery Nieuwenhuizen. The only reason these factories could continue to operate was because they were managed by people from the NSB (National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands). Although most employees wanted nothing to do with the NSB, the managers’ loyalties to the NSB proved to have a positive consequence as well: later it was found that the factory managers had prevented their employees from being deported to Germany on account of their membership with the NSB.
The many students living in Transvaal showed much resistance against the oppressor. Take for example the Royal Student’s Rowing Association, Njord. Its members refused to obey the antisemitic rules imposed by the Germans, and many students did not sign the mandatory declaration of loyalty to Nazi Germany. This led to the closing of the association on multiple occasions and regular police raids in student houses. There were many other people in the area besides students who showed different forms of resistance. Some were part of a underground commando group, others took Jewish people in hiding.
Because of the neighborhood’s position next to the tracks, it was considered a high risk area, which hit residents hard. On the 10th and 11th of December 1944, the neighborhood was hit by bombs from the Allies who were attempting to hit the train tracks. The houses on the corner of the President Steinstraat and the Lopsenstraat were entirely destroyed. This attack cost the lives of at least 60 people in Leiden.