The Rosarium Ambush

You are standing near the Rosarium, and on the morning of May 7, 1945, this peaceful spot became the scene of one of the most tragic events of the entire liberation. That morning, 13 members of the Dutch resistance, known as the Binnenlandse Strijdkrachten, set out from a secret weapons depot hidden inside a pharmacy on the Willem de Zwijgerstraat.

Their exact destination is still debated. Some say they were heading to Anton Mussert's house on the Nassaulaan, while others believe they were making their way to Maliebaan 15 to take over a former German command post. Right here, near the Rosarium, they came across a group of German soldiers struggling with a broken-down truck.

Then a single shot rang out. Nobody knows to this day who fired it, but German SS troops positioned in the Rosarium immediately opened fire. Anti-aircraft guns from the nearby Sint Barbara cemetery joined in. Within moments, 10 of the 13 men were dead. Only 2 managed to escape, and 1 survived simply because he had fallen behind on the route. The tragedy was made worse by the fact that the national resistance commander had explicitly ordered his men to hold back until the Germans had formally surrendered. Whether that order ever reached these 13 men, nobody knows.