Neighborhood Bunker
Fig. 1. View on the bunker from above. Photo taken by Cees de Jonge.
The presence of the oppressor has had a tremendous impact on the collective memory of the Transvaal neighborhood, especially in the area surrounding the bunker. Some residents keep these memories alive to this very day. They make photobooks, or walk past the places that still show signs of the war, or share their memories with each other – and now with us as well.
The memories associated with the bunker differ among residents. One resident tells us that she, as a child born after the war, always played around the bunker and the bomb shelters: “It was extremely fun because of the many rooms and thick walls.” Another resident also played near the remnants of the war: “There was this part of the Atlantic Wall, where you could still see the concrete palisades of a bunker, and next to it a tank trap. The tank trap was deep and wide and filled with puddles of water where we would try to catch little fish and tadpoles. In the winter we used to skate there a lot.”
But the parents of many of the residents had very different memories about the exact same place. One resident tells of their father, who had been in hiding in the Transvaal neighborhood and had to flee the falling bombs on the 10th and 11th of December 1944. Another resident who witnessed the war as a child also speaks of this bombardment that accidently hit the neighborhood: “The general feeling was: disappointment that they couldn’t aim better. We were determined that it wouldn’t make us feel more scared, but damn it: if you do something, do it right. After the bombing, my father went to aid the others in helping the wounded in the destroyed houses. That I do remember.” Where one resident recalls an exciting playground, the other sees a site of horrific acts of war.
These memories bring the war closer again. They also show how time affects the memories related to the bunker. Some associate it with war and want it removed or kept in place as a monument. Others have no clue about the history of the bunker and feel little attachment to it. What exactly should happen to it has been debated for decades already. Read on to find out about the potential future of this bunker.