Special story: during the war, Germans and Jews were together in Hotel des Indes

In the context of Remembrance Day and Liberation Day, we went looking for a war story from The Hague. We soon ended up at Hotel Des Indes. This famous hotel was used intensively during the Second World War by both the German occupiers and Jewish people in hiding. A special story with a happy ending.

Henri Rey was then the director of Hotel des Indes. He had a dovecote on the roof of the hotel long before the outbreak of war. Prize pigeons were his great hobby. In 21 Ray fled to England and his pigeons stayed behind in The Hague. What does this have to do with the story? Read on quickly.

People in hiding

Many German officers lived in Hotel des Indes during the war, it even became a German headquarters. What they did not know at the time was that Jewish people in hiding were staying in the hotel at the same time.

The management of the hotel had found a place for the people in hiding in the dovecote on the roof of Des Indes. The Germans did not notice anything during the entire war and in the end all those people in hiding survived the war. The beautiful pigeons did die, they were eaten by both the occupiers and the people in hiding.

Source: Hotel Des Indes,