A round up of the best stories about the Netherlands and all things Dutch from leading international publications
The Dutch are coming. That is the upbeat message from Ido Abram, director of See NL, the umbrella body for the promotion of Dutch films and film culture. ‘Dutch films overall did really well internationally in 2019,’ he says. ‘Documentaries, short films, youth films, feature films all made the festival circuit in an incredible way.’ More >
Oscar-winning actor presents documentary retracing life of Jewish teenager killed by the Nazis. More >
Shortly after her capture by the Nazis in 1944, Dutch resistance fighter Selma van de Perre was transferred from a regular prison to the worst concentration camp in the Netherlands. Van de Perre arrived at the infamous Camp Vught about five months after its commander, Adam Grunewald, had killed 10 women by cramming them and 64 other inmates into an unventilated, 100-square-feet cell for 14 hours. More >
When he was asked to create a memorial to the 104,000 Jewish, Roma, and Sinti people from the Netherlands who were killed during the Holocaust, Daan Roosegaarde hesitated. The Dutch artist, engineer, and master of light-based art and design was not sure at first whether to accept such a delicate and complicated assignment. More >
The Dutch justice system is cutting jail populations by offering specialist rehabilitation to people with mental illnesses. More >
When she came across a Nazi killing an infant by repeatedly swinging its tiny body against a brick wall, Truus Oversteegen didn’t flinch. The freckle-faced teenager, who was just three months shy of her 17th birthday when Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, was a newly minted member of the Dutch resistance. She had been mostly assigned to hide Jewish children, political dissidents and homosexuals in various safe houses throughout Haarlem, her hometown, which was about 12 miles west... More >
German aerial photographer Tom Hegen has dedicated his craft to exploring the impact that humans have on the natural world. For better or worse, his work shows how we have shaped the environment and made changes that are often irreparable. His latest journey into the sky saw him photographing Holland’s LED greenhouses, which have allowed The Netherlands to remain a formidable force in food production and export. More >
Last week, Dutch farmers across the country parked their tractors along highways in the third such protest since October, when they jammed traffic while driving en masse to The Hague, the nation’s center of government. More >
Wrapped in an electric blanket metres from a busy highway in the Netherlands lay the body of a man in such a state of decomposition he was impossible to identify. It was August 1991 and the man’s chest bore several stab wounds. The local workers who found him told police it was the stench that led them to his corpse. More >
The architecture, language and culture of New Netherland influences New York today, even if most modern-day inhabitants have little idea of the history beneath their feet. More >
Thunderdome launched with a giant octopus on an ice rink – and created the Netherlands’ biggest youth culture movement. Three decades on, it’s stronger and tougher than ever. More >
The Netherlands could build a million new homes from sustainably harvested local wood and save 100 megatons of carbon in the process, according to architect Marco Vermeulen. More >
The Dutch chief information officers of more than 100 big companies have raised the alarm about monopolistic practices by major software suppliers. Oracle in particular is said to have locked its customers into unfair contracts before demanding millions of euros a year in extra charges. More >
Middle-power nations need to do more to reform flawed and failing global institutions such as the UN Security Council and the World Bank, not disengage from them, Netherlands PM Mark Rutte has told an Australian audience. More >
Designers are mourning the passing of Wim Crouwel, the celebrated Dutch graphic designer who, in word and deed, championed the idea that creating clear, straightforward communications is the profession’s highest purpose. Crouwel’s family confirmed to ANP that he died in his home in Amsterdam on Sept 19. He was 90 years old. More >
The best teenagers at Ajax, PSV, AZ and Utrecht do not play in a youth league. They face men in the country’s second division More >
When gaming addiction took hold of Tom, 17, he would stay up all night glued to his computer. He stopped going to school and, despite his exams approaching, the only thought on his mind was how long the new game he had purchased was taking to download. More >
This week the Dutch-Belgian biotech company Galapagos agreed an unprecedented deal with the American pharmaceutical giant Gilead. The deal has guaranteed its independence for at least 10 years and boosted its bank balance. For now the fish seems to be safe from the sharks. More >
In the early 1600s, the Dutch founded a colony called New Netherland, with its capital of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island. It was the base from which they laid a claim to the New World, and from which they tussled with their archenemy, England, and her colonies in New England and Virginia. More >
