Latest news with #Haarlem
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
200-year-old condom featuring erotic drawing of a semi-naked nun and three clergymen goes on display at Dutch museum
The Netherlands ' national museum is putting a 200-year-old condom that features erotic art of a semi-naked nun and three clergymen on display. The Rijksmuseum said in a statement that the playful prophylactic, believed to be made around 1830 from a sheep's appendix, 'depicts both the playful and the serious side of sexual health.' It is part of an exhibition called 'Safe Sex?' about 19th century sex work that opened on Tuesday. The condom, possibly a souvenir from a brothel, is 20cm (7.8in) and decorated with an erotic image of a nun and three clergymen. The phrase 'This is my choice' is written along the sheath in French. According to the museum, this is a reference to the Pierre-Auguste Renoir painting 'The Judgment of Paris', which itself depicts a Greek myth in which a Trojan prince is asked to judge a beauty contest between three goddesses. Rijksmuseum curator Joyce Zelen said the allusion to Greek mythology suggested that the owner of the prophylactic would've been a high-ranking member of society at the time. She said: 'We believe that whoever acquired the condom would have been fairly sophisticated and well-educated.' The piece was purchased for €1,000 (£840) at an auction in Haarlem last November, and will be put on display until the end of November as part of an exhibition that features Dutch and French prints and drawings on the themes of sex work and sexual health. Before 1839, the year vulcanised rubber was invented, condoms were typically made from linen, animal membranes or, in some case, turtle shells. But they were ineffective, doing little to provide protection against the spread of sexually transmitted diseases or the prevention of pregnancy. Zelen added: 'In the 1830s, when this condom was made, the use of condoms was still frowned upon, especially by the church. 'They were mostly sold under the counter at brothels or barber shops, though there are some reports of luxury shops offering bespoke tailoring.' The possible souvenir is believed to have never been used, Zelen said, after the museum looked at it under UV light. She added: 'It's also unclear whether the nun in the etching is pointing at the bald man, the thin man, or the one who looks slightly overweight. That way, any type of man could feel spoken to.'
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
The forgotten story of WWII's baby-faced assassins who, aged just 14 and 16, seduced Nazis in bars before luring them to their deaths
Sisters Freddie and Truus Oversteegen blew up bridges and railway tracks with dynamite, smuggled Jewish children out of concentration camps and executed as many Nazis as they could, using a firearm hidden in the basket of their bike. They were only teenagers at the outbreak of World War II, but they soon used their harmless appearance to gain the trust of the officers before luring them to their deaths. Now, their stories are back in the spotlight after being shared on Instagram, with fans calling for their heroic acts against the face of evil to be made into movies, bemoaning the 'seven million Spider-Man or Batman reboots' viewers get instead. Freddie and Truus joined the Dutch resistance at the ages of 14 and 16, respectively, after witnessing horrifying violence by the Nazis, who invaded their home nation, The Netherlands, in 1940. Truus, born on 29 August 1923, in Schoten, had been protecting Jewish children, dissidents and homosexuals in safe houses across Haarlem, near Amsterdam, during the Second World War. But aged 16 she saw a baby battered to death in front of its family by a Nazi - and following the terrifying moment, she and her younger sister Freddie turned to killing all the soldiers they could. Truus recalled in Sophie Poldermans' Seducing and Killing Nazis: Hannie, Truus And Freddie: Dutch Resistance Heroines Of World War II: 'He grabbed the baby and hit it against the wall. 'The father and sister had to watch. They were obviously hysterical. The child was dead,' the resistance fighter said, according to the New York Post. Truus claimed she aimed her gun at him and fired, adding she did not regret slaying the 'cancerous tumours in our society'. Alongside her sister Freddie, born in Haarlem, near Amsterdam on September 6, 1925, and raised by their communist mother, and their law student friend Hannie Schaft, the trio became played a clandestine role in the resistance. The team had a routine: first approach the Nazi men in bars, and, having successfully seduced them, ask if they wanted to 'go for a stroll' in the forest, where, as Freddie herself put it, they would be 'liquidated'. 'We had to do it,' she told one interviewer. 'It was a necessary evil, killing those who betrayed the good people.' When asked how many people she had killed or helped kill, she demurred: 'One should not ask a soldier any of that.' Freddie acted as a courier for the resistance to begin with but was soon drafted into seducing Nazis with bright-red lipstick and pretending to be drunk alongside her sister and a 20-year-old Hannie. The law student, who had red hair and crystal-white teeth, through herself into the role by learning German and perfecting casual conversations with the soldiers. After luring them into the woods, she or a male companion would quickly shoot the unassuming officer. Author Ms Poldermans explained: 'They were killers, but they also tried hard to remain human. They tried to shoot their targets from the back so that they didn't know they were going to die.' The sisters have never revealed how many people they killed and despite Ms Poldermans being friends with them for 20 years, it does not feature in her book. But Truus did confess to breaking down in tears or fainting after killing someone, adding 'I wasn't born to kill.' Freddie - who died on September 5, 2018, one day before her 93rd birthday - was the last surviving member of the Netherlands' most famous female resistance cell, who dedicated their lives to fighting Nazi occupiers and Dutch 'traitors'. The female members of the Dutch resistance are often overlooked, and it was and still is often thought of as a man's effort. However, this kind of thinking proved to be a fatal mistake to many Nazi men, who did not recognise the threat posed by the Oversteegen sisters as they rode their bikes around Haarlem, scouting out targets or acting as lookouts for other executions. Both Oversteegen sisters survived the war. Truus found work as an artist, and was inspired to write a memoir and based on her experiences in the resistance. She died in 2016. Freddie told Vice that she coped with the traumas of the war 'by getting married and having babies.' She married Jan Dekker and their three children survive her, as do her four grandchildren. However, speaking after his mother's death in 2018, Freddie's son Remi Dekker told the Observer: 'If you ask me, the war only ended two weeks ago. 'In her mind it was still going on, and on, and on. It didn't stop, even until the last day... She shot a few people, and these were the real, real bad guys. But she hated it, and she hated herself for doing it.' In the years leading up to her death, Freddie suffered from several heart attacks at the nursing home in Driehuis where she lived - about five miles outside Haarlem. The Oversteegen siblings' friend Hannie Schaft, a onetime law student with fiery red hair, was captured and executed by the Nazis just weeks before they surrendered. 'Hannie was her soulmate friend. Freddie could never understand why the Nazis killed her just before the end of the war. She always took red roses to her grave,' revealed Manon Hoornstra, after the youngest Oversteegen sister shared many of her war time memories with the documentary maker. In Hannie's honour, Truus founded the National Hannie Schaft Foundation in 1996. Freddie served as a board member. 'Schaft became the national icon of female resistance,' said Jeroen Pliester, the foundation's chairman. Her story was taught to Dutch children and retold in a 1981 Dutch film, 'The Girl With the Red Hair'. For the sisters, their work with the resistance wasn't something they would ever regret, but it left its emotional scars. They both dealt with 'post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), enduring severe nightmares, screaming and fighting in their sleep,' revealed human rights activist Ms Poldermans to Time magazine in 2019. The author added: 'These women never saw themselves as heroines. They were extremely dedicated and believed they had no other option but to join the resistance. They never regretted what they did during the war.' 'It was tragic and very difficult and we cried about it afterwards,' Truus said, about the feeling of having killed somebody. 'We did not feel it suited us - it never suits anybody, unless they are real criminals. One loses everything. It poisons the beautiful things in life.' Their mother gave Truus and Freddie only one rule, 'always stay human', the sisters once recalled. The Dutch newspaper IJmuider Courant, reported that Freddie once told an interviewer: 'I've shot a gun myself and I've seen them fall. And what is inside us at such a moment? You want to help them get up.' During the later years of her life, Freddie strived for more acknowledgment of her role, and both sisters eventually received the Dutch Mobilization War Cross in 2014, before a street was named after each of them. 'So many years after doing their work in the shadows, they were glad for the public recognition,' Ms Poldermans told the publication. 'They wanted their stories to be known - to teach people that, as Truus put it, even when the work is hard, 'you must always remain human.''
Associated Press
27-05-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Pair of portraits by Dutch master Frans Hals return to the Netherlands
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A pair of paintings by Dutch Golden Age master Frans Hals that possibly depict his own children are returning to the Netherlands after more than a century overseas in the hands of private owners. 'Boy Playing the Violin' and 'Girl Singing,' were bought Monday at auction for $7.8 million by the Frans Hals Museum and the Mauritshuis museum, with financial support from the Dutch government and a group of foundations. Painted around 1628, the works are seen as especially interesting because, according to the museums, Hals may have used his own children as models. The Dutch government sees them as an important part of the country's cultural heritage. ''It's fantastic that these paintings by Frans Hals, which were owned by a private collector abroad, are now home again', Dutch Culture Minister Eppo Bruins said Tuesday in a statement. Last year, Amsterdam's Rijksmueum hosted a major exhibition of the works of Hals, who is famous for depicting his subjects in a lively and expressive manner. He spent nearly all of his life just outside of Amsterdam, in the small city of Haarlem. The Frans Hals Museum, located in Haarlem, has the largest collection of the artist's work in the world and will share ownership of the painting with the Mauritshuis, in The Hague. The museums will alternate showing the works, but will always keep the two together. The paintings will be on display from mid-July at the Frans Hals Museum and will move to Mauritshuis in the fall. A joint custody agreement for artwork is not new to the Netherlands. In 2015, the Netherlands and France jointly bought a pair of works by another 17th century Dutch master, Rembrandt van Rijn, and swap the paintings every five years. The life-sized portraits of newlyweds Marten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit were first on display at the Rijksmueum and moved to the Louvre in Paris last year.
The Independent
27-05-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Pair of portraits by Dutch master Frans Hals return to the Netherlands
A pair of paintings by Dutch Golden Age master Frans Hals that possibly depict his own children are returning to the Netherlands after more than a century overseas in the hands of private owners. 'Boy Playing the Violin' and 'Girl Singing,' were bought Monday at auction for $7.8 million by the Frans Hals Museum and the Mauritshuis museum, with financial support from the Dutch government and a group of foundations. Painted around 1628, the works are seen as especially interesting because, according to the museums, Hals may have used his own children as models. The Dutch government sees them as an important part of the country's cultural heritage. ''It's fantastic that these paintings by Frans Hals, which were owned by a private collector abroad, are now home again', Dutch Culture Minister Eppo Bruins said Tuesday in a statement. Last year, Amsterdam's Rijksmueum hosted a major exhibition of the works of Hals, who is famous for depicting his subjects in a lively and expressive manner. He spent nearly all of his life just outside of Amsterdam, in the small city of Haarlem. The Frans Hals Museum, located in Haarlem, has the largest collection of the artist's work in the world and will share ownership of the painting with the Mauritshuis, in The Hague. The museums will alternate showing the works, but will always keep the two together. The paintings will be on display from mid-July at the Frans Hals Museum and will move to Mauritshuis in the fall. A joint custody agreement for artwork is not new to the Netherlands. In 2015, the Netherlands and France jointly bought a pair of works by another 17th century Dutch master, Rembrandt van Rijn, and swap the paintings every five years. The life-sized portraits of newlyweds Marten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit were first on display at the Rijksmueum and moved to the Louvre in Paris last year.
