A fallen bronze tree monument located in Frederiksplein in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, was created as a memorial to Walraven van Hall, banker of Dutch resistance during World War II. The piece highlights the many different forms memorials can take in order to celebrate an individual while also cultivating engagement with audiences.
Banker to the Resistance
After the Netherlands surrendered to the invading forces of Nazi Germany in 1940, the entire country went under their control for the duration of World War II. Walraven van Hall was working in Amsterdam at the time as a banker and stockbroker and would lend these skills to fund-raising activities for all kinds of resistance groups. He financed the Jewish fugitives and the resistance by replacing treasury processes in the Nederlandse Bank with forgeries. The Nationaal Steunfonds (National Support Fund) he founded helped thousands of people and also supported numerous other resistance activities. He was caught and shot in 1945, three months before the liberation of the country.
To honor these efforts, Spanish artist Fernando Sanchez Castello created a memorial that commemorates van Hall and all of the work he did to help free the country. Installed in 2010 near the office of the Dutch Central Bank, it depicts a fallen bronze tree and lies next to the fountain, symbolizing van Hall as a “fallen giant” of the forces that fought against the occupying forces. It features a marker that mentions Walraven van Hall as the banker of the resistance along with the date he was born and when he died.
Posthumously awarded the Dutch Cross of Resistance, van Hall is a hero to the individuals he helped save and to the entire country. The Memorial to Walraven van Hall showcases what kind of unique engagement can be enabled thanks to an imaginative approach to honor such endeavors.
Legacy and Uniqueness
Individuals are most often honored with a figurative statue or plain marker, making them all appear similar. The Memorial to Walraven van Hall compels audiences to ask questions of the piece itself as well as what it being memorialized for audiences in the present and future.
