Bezuidenhout (; en, "South of the Wood") is the neighborhood ( nl, wijk) southeast of the

Haagse Bos Haagse Bos (, literally ''Forest of The Hague'') is a rectangular neighbourhood and forest in the Haagse Hout district of The Hague, Netherlands, reaching from the old city centre in the south-west to the border of Wassenaar in the north-east. I ...

neighborhood of

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. Bezuidenhout includes the

Beatrixkwartier The Beatrixkwartier (literally ''Beatrix Quarter'' in Dutch) is a modern financial district in The Hague, near the Central Station, in the Bezuidenhout district. The name was thought up when they were renewing the Beatrixlaan. Officially this ar ...

financial area near the

Central Station Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the ...

and streets such as Bezuidenhoutseweg, Juliana van Stolberglaan, Laan van Nieuw Oost-Indië, Prins Clauslaan, and Theresiastraat. Part of

German-occupied Europe German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 an ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Bezuidenhout was bombed by mistake by the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

in a

bombing raid Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its morale, its economic ability to produce and transport materiel to the theatres of military operations, or both. It is a systemati ...

which killed hundreds of civilians. The targeted area was the adjacent woodland park

that was used by the Germans for launching V-1 and

V-2 The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develope ...

rockets, but all bombs missed the forest target by more than because of an error in reading the map, overcast conditions and incorrect allowance for the wind. The mistake caused the deaths of 511 civilians. Because nobody was certain about what to do after the explosion, there were no plans to reconstruct the neighbourhood until 1962, when David Jokinen saw an opportunity to put an end to the situation in which the Staatsspoor station and the

Hollands Spoor Den Haag HS (English: The Hague HS), an abbreviation of the original name Den Haag Hollands Spoor (''The Hague Holland Rail''), is the oldest train station in The Hague, South Holland, Netherlands, located on the Amsterdam–Haarlem–Rotterdam ...

each served only part of the rail traffic. His plan included demolishing the Staatsspoor Station. His plan sparked fierce discussions. The plan was not implemented, in part because it was only presented when decision-making had finally reached an advanced stage. Today, the Den Haag Centraal railway station stands in place of the Staatsspoor station.

References

Neighbourhoods of The Hague {{SouthHolland-geo-stub