About this route

Specially to mark 75 years of liberation, we have collected together stories and events that happened in TU Noord during World War II. They include occupation, resistance, espionage, penicillin, armistice and refugees – all of it in TU Noord.

During World War II
For example, there was a German police post in De Vries van Heijstplantsoen and yet the Botanic Garden, just a few metres away, was a hotbed of resistance. Gerrit van Iterson, professor of Technical Botany, wanted nothing to do with the resistance against the Germans, yet the head of the Garden Service, Piet de Vries, was actually the local resistance leader.

Mekel, professor of Geophysics, established a spy network, but was later betrayed and executed. Kluyver, professor of Microbiology, secretly assisted in the development of penicillin.

Finally, the last Delft fatalities actually happened in and around the Botanic Garden after the armistice had been signed.

Memorial window
In the former faculty of Mining Engineering in Mijnbouwstraat 120, Delft.
Photograph by: Stichting Erfgoed Mijnbouwkunde Delft