Exhibition Freedom under pressure: political prisoners, then and now

• Date: 31 January - 01 December
• Location: Nationaal Monument Oranjehotel, Den Haag

In the new exhibition Freedom under pressure. Political prisoners, then and now, NM Oranjehotel places its own past in a global perspective from January to December 2025. In addition to the history of the origins and commemorative culture surrounding political prisons, the exhibition also focuses on their continued existence up to the present day. From Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin to Jinzhou prison in northeastern China.

During the Second World War, the Oranjehotel, the nickname for the Scheveningen prison, served as a political prison. Opponents of the Nazi regime were locked up, interrogated and sentenced here. But political imprisonment is of all times and places. All over the world, there are places that, like the Oranjehotel, symbolise the existence of lawlessness and dictatorial regimes.

The exhibition Freedom under pressure. Political prisoners, then and now takes place in the context of 80 years of freedom. A year in which we celebrate that 80 years ago the Second World War came to an end and the Netherlands has a democracy.

In addition to the exhibition, the NM Oranjehotel organizes a number of lectures in collaboration with Studium Generale Leiden University that delve deeper into various themes. Click here for more information.

The exhibition was made possible thanks to financial support from Vfonds.

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