maandag 21 maart 2011

Veenhuizen



I had read a book called "The pauper's paradise" which intriged me very much. In 1818 a military officer and politician "Johannes van den Bosch" had a solution for the urban poor. They were sent to "beggars colonies" in Veenhuizen in the east of the Netherlands. The poor were "re-educated" with military discipline and hard agriculture work. Probably the man had good intentions but the paupers had to do what they were strictly prescribed and it was more or less a prison where they never got away anymore. Now it is a museum.

The first photo is a room where the poor had to eat and sleep,  the hammocks had to be hoist up after sleeping. The second is the building from the outside.
 I must say it was a rather depressing experience to visit the museum, it was all about prisons and isolationcells. We did a bustour in an old "prisonners bus" with barred windows to a real prison in the neighbourhood which was also not so fun. But the book of  "Suzanna Jansen" I can recomment.


4 opmerkingen:

  1. Although a sad experience the photos are great and the building is nice too.

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  2. A very sad period of history. I guess they had no other alternative.

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  3. yes, i also like the pictures... so many sad things happen. and/or happened..

    oh, and last night blogger told me your blog did not exist! but now everything seems fine again, i was just a little worried!

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  4. CaT,
    That's right, it was suddenly disappeared, removed! I don't know what happened, but it is tricky to get it all back. You have to give a mobile number to get a code and my G-mail had also gone. I have mixed feelings about it. I read a Blogger help forum where many people had the same experience suddenly everything removed!
    You don't know if this is safe, you don't get a reason for it.
    Well I hope for the best, internet is sometimes a "schimmige"wereld

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