Just saw a history television program (VPRO Andere Tijden/Other Times) on the rise of the new type of elderly home in the Netherlands in the seventies of last century and remembered a reportage I wrote for our radical weekly newspaper (Amsterdams Weekblad) must have been 1972 on a sad old man who had been transported to the new pre-graveyard high rise structure, from the inner town to the outskirts of the city…. He was looking from his high rise coffin onto a high road serpentining to a grey horizon… Just checked the municipal archive for a photograph of that particular elderly home (Flevohuis) and found it. The picture illustrates the atmosphere perfectly… the Public Works photographer gave a visual clue by the black frame ribbon that goes with this historical document of Old age Apartheid in the Netherlands; the Welfare Home Lands for the elderly…. freeing young and productive families from the burden of having parents….
Posts Tagged ‘bejaardenhuis’
The idea of old age Apartheid in the Netherlands 40 years ago
Posted in Amsterdam history, Discrimination, Dutch politics, tagged Apartheid, bejaardenhuis, elderly, Flevohuis (Amsterdam), ouden van dagen on November 12, 2010| 2 Comments »