World War II bunkers in Scheveningen

The Atlantic Wall was a system of  fortifications built by the Germans during World War II along the western coast of Europe as a defence against Allied invasion from Britain. Sean and I are walking on the beach north of the Scheveningen pier. On the dunes behind the beach there are are still several bunkers from World War II. They were part of the Atlantic Wall.  They have a sort of sinister look about them, like dark evil eyes emerging out of the sandy hills. 

Near here is an execution site. During the war over 250 Dutch working for the resistance were executed by the Germans in this spot. Many of the victims were shot in retaliation for the attempted assassination of Hans Albin Rauter. He was the highest SS and Police leader for the occupied Netherlands, responsible for the deportation of 110,000 Dutch Jews to concentration camps (only 6,000 survived), the forced employment of 500,000 Dutchmen in Germany and the repression of the Dutch resistance. 

In March 1945 he was wounded in an attack by the Dutch resistance. As a reprisal the Germans executed around 300 members of the resistance at various locations including the Scheveningen site. Rauter  survived the attack and was transferred to a hospital by a German patrol.  He stayed there until his arrest at the end of the war. Found guilty of war crimes, he was sentenced to death. Rauter was shot near Scheveningen in 1949 but the burial site remains a state secret.