15th September 1952
In 1952, 8 years after the disastrous Battle of Arnhem, Radio Netherlands retold the events of that fateful 17th of September 1944 with the help of a diary of one family. Broadcast: October 15, …
17th September 1954
This programme is part of the series Remembering the Second World War in the Netherlands: Historical Sound of the 1950'sWhile much of the south of the Netherlands was liberated in late 1944, the …
15th December 1954
Queen Juliana signing the Charter for the Kingdom of the …
29th April 1955
This programme is part of the series Remembering the Second World War in the Netherlands: Historical Sound of the 1950'sThe failure of the Battle of Arnhem in September 1944 meant that the northern …
1st May 1955
This programme is part of the series Remembering the Second World War in the Netherlands: Historical Sound of the 1950'sThe Netherlands celebrates Liberation Day every year on May 5th, marking the …
4th May 1955
This programme is part of the series Remembering the Second World War in the Netherlands: Historical Sound of the 1950'sFinally on May 5th, German generals were summoned to Hotel De Wereld in the …
10th May 1955
This programme is part of the series Remembering the Second World War in the Netherlands: Historical Sound of the 1950'sThis documentary, broadcast ten years after the end of World War II and fifteen …
15th August 1955
This programme is part of the series Remembering the Second World War in the Netherlands: Historical Sound of the 1950's In 1945, the Second World War continued in the Pacific and Southeast …
14th November 1957
Good old-fashioned radio roundup of the year’s main events from the Dutch perspective. The annual newsreel looks back at the main events that affected Holland and the world in 1957: scientific …
31st December 1958
Good old-fashioned radio roundup of the year’s main events from the Dutch perspective, with interesting little facts and sound bites about Holland and the world in 1958: Queen Elizabeth I and …
30th April 1980
The English Department’s live coverage of the abdication of Queen Juliana and the inauguration of Queen Beatrix on April 30, 1980. The reporters were Harry Kliphuis and Nevil Gray. The studio …
1st April 1982
This programme was recorded in Dutch for broadcast by the Dutch-language section of Radio Netherlands to mark the bicentennial of Dutch-American relations in 1982. The Dutch Republic was, after …
2nd November 1982
This documentary tells the story of the Battle of Arnhem in September 1944. It combines rare archive material with the memories of both civilians and soldiers who took part in Operation Market …
31st January 1985
Nevil Gray reports on the recently opened AMC, the University of Amsterdam’s teaching hospital. At the time, it was the biggest building in Europe and replaced two old hospitals in the city …
30th October 1985
Pete Myers and Bert Steinkamp present a documentary about the Dutch hunger winter of 1944. People who lived through this horrible period towards the end of the Second World War talk about their …
26th October 1986
This programme is part of the series We made a hoe and went alongThe programme is part of the Radio Netherlands’ Transcription Series “We made a hoe and went along”, produced in 1986. The programme …
1st August 1987
This programme is part of the series VIP LoungeVIP Lounge was a series of portraits produced in the late 1980’s of well-known Dutch people who gained international fame for their professional …
4th May 1988
1988 marked the 40th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. This programme takes a look at Israel from a Dutch perspective. It was first broadcast on May 4th, which is the Dutch annual …
15th July 1988
Pete Myers was among a select group of Dutch journalists invited to Kensington Palace to interview Britain’s Crown Prince Charles in 1988 to mark the 300th anniversary of the Glorious …
16th October 1989
This programme is part of the series Chris Chambers meetsIn this unedited interview, Chris Chambers talks to lawyer and gay rights activist Kees Waaldijk who was the driving force behind the …
11th October 1992
A week after an El Al jumbo jet ploughed into an apartment building in the Bijlmermeer district in Amsterdam, Pete Myers presents a programme on mourning and loss. Producer: Pete Myers Broadcast: …
1st August 1995
In August 1945, Indonesians proclaimed independence from the Netherlands. After hundreds of years of Dutch colonial rule, the East Indies was one of the world’s largest, richest and most …
24th May 1996
In a small country like the Netherlands, housing is hard to come by. In the 1970’s and 80’s, the housing crisis reached a peak. As a result, some people took matters into their own hands. …
25th January 1998
By the time Queen Beatrix celebrated her 60th birthday in 1998, she had been on the throne of the Netherlands for almost 20 years. By this time, she had acquired a great deal of respect both among …
24th February 1998
The VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) or Dutch East India Company was the world’s first multinational commercial empire. For nearly two hundred years, from the time it was established in …
24th February 1998
The VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) or Dutch East India Company was the world’s first multinational commercial empire. For nearly two hundred years, from the time it was established in …
3rd March 1998
The VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) or Dutch East India Company was the world’s first multinational commercial empire. For nearly two hundred years, from the time it was established in …
11th March 1998
The VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) or Dutch East India Company was the world’s first multinational commercial empire. For nearly 200 years, from the time it was established in 1602 to …
23rd April 1998
From its first publication to the plays, films and dispute surrounding the ownership of her name, Anne Frank’s diary continues to stir up controversy. David Swatling investigates the history and …
22nd May 1998
Since it was founded in Rotterdam in 1873, the Holland America Line (HAL) has transported about 7 million passengers to destinations around the world…from immigrants setting out for America in the …
17th June 1998
Experts traditionally judge the quality of a finished diamond by four criteria: cut, clarity, colour and carat. But there is a dark side to the story of this brilliant, beautiful stone—the hardest …
23rd June 1998
Experts traditionally judge the quality of a finished diamond by four criteria: cut, clarity, color and carat. But there is a dark side to the story of this brilliant, beautiful stone—the hardest …
1st September 1998
When Queen Wilhelmina inherited the Dutch throne from her father King Willem III of the Netherlands in 1890, she was only ten years old. She was not only the country’s first female monarch, but …
28th September 1998
The story of the pioneers who settled the new Dutch colony of New Netherland, the founding of New Amsterdam and why the experiment of New Netherland nearly failed. This Dutch 17th-century colony …
1st January 1999
In 1999, Radio Netherlands broadcast a series of 12 programmes telling the story of the 20th century through famous books. In each programme, a guest speaker gives us the historical background behind …
1st January 1999
This programme is part of the series Stories of Our CenturyIn 1999, Radio Netherlands broadcast a series of 12 programmes telling the story of the 20th century through famous books. In each …
1st January 1999
This programme is part of the series Stories of Our CenturyIn 1999, Radio Netherlands broadcast a series of 12 programmes telling the story of the 20th century through famous books. In each …
1st January 1999
This programme is part of the series Stories of Our CenturyIn 1999, Radio Netherlands marked the end of the millenium with a series of 12 programmes telling the story of the 20th century through …
1st February 1999
This programme is part of the series Stories of Our CenturyIn 1999, Radio Netherlands broadcast a series of 12 programmes telling the story of the 20th century through famous books. In each …
9th September 1999
This award-winning programme focuses on a secret operation involving the Netherlands Anti-Apartheid Movement, the AABN, during Nelson Mandela’s imprisonment and the apartheid years in South …
19th September 1999
The people who many of us refer to as “gypsies”, but who call themselves Sinti and Roma, are a small ethnic minority in the Netherlands, numbering between 5,000 and 7,000 at the …
18th November 1999
When the ancient Roman historian Tacitus witnessed how the inhabitants of what is now the Netherlands lived on mounds of muddy earth surrounded by water, he was flabbergasted that anyone would choose …
29th May 2000
In the mid-17th century, Dr. Franciscus Sylvius was a professor of medicine at Holland’s first and most famous university. The Faculty at Leiden paid double the normal salary to entice the famous …
7th July 2000
Time has brought about enormous change in relations between the Netherlands and South Africa: from the days when Dutch settlers founded Cape Town and formed the Boer community to the days of …
29th August 2000
David Swatling focuses on the relationship between the Dutch masters, their paintings and music. Some paintings in the 17th century had music as a theme. Others, such as paintings of weddings or …
29th September 2000
In 1950, the topic of European unity was being talked about in Holland as much as it is today but for very different reasons. It was just five years after the end of World War II, and the Marshall …
21st October 2000
Mindy Ran tries to unravel the myths surrounding Kenau Simonsdochter Hasselaer (1526-1588). She was the daughter of an important Haarlem family, ran a shipyard, was involved in the defence of the …
3rd December 2000
Mindy Ran talks to politicians and medical practitioners about the draft bill that will legalise euthanasia. What are the pros and cons? Producer: Mindy Ran Broadcast: December 3, 2000…
29th May 2001
In this new millennium, Amsterdam like so many cities around the world has been facing the challenge of building for an expanding population, a changing economy and new technologies. In these two …
8th July 2001
This programme is an updated version of the Slavery Special, broadcast on the December 24, 2000, when the location and the design of the National Slavery Monument had not yet been decided. The …
16th October 2001
This programme is part of the series Chris Chambers meetsIn this unedited interview, Chris Chambers talks to one of the pioneers of European integration after World War Two. Max Kohnstamm (1914-2010) …
27th January 2002
In the run-up to the wedding of Prince Willem-Alexander and Máxima, René Appel on Máxima’s proficiency in Dutch, Argentinian photographer Marcelo Bodsky’s exhibition illustrating crimes …
31st January 2002
No family has closer ties to the Dutch nation or played a greater role in the history of the Netherlands than the House of Orange. The country’s “founding father” …
2nd February 2002
Highlights of the coverage of Radio Netherlands’ current affairs programme, Newsline, of the marriage of Dutch Prince Willem-Alexander and Princess Máxima in 2002. …
15th April 2002
Johannis de Rijke (1842-1913) was the son of a humble dyke worker from Zeeland. Yet by the time he died, he had reached the highest position ever reached by a foreigner in Japan, and was a regular …
19th July 2002
Over 400 years ago, in 1602, the Dutch East India Company was set up with trading posts all over the world, and it grew into the first and biggest multinational commercial enterprise of its time. The …
6th September 2002
This documentary tells the untold story of the Black Dutchmen Belanda Hitam. In the 19th century, between 1831 to 1872, 3,000 West Africans were recruited to serve in the Dutch East Indies colonial …
31st October 2002
In this unedited interview, Paul Clark talks to Carol Ann Lee about her remarkable new biography of Otto Frank. In it, she presents a plausible theory about who betrayed the Frank family in 1944 and …
31st January 2003
This programme is part of the series Rivers of the WorldRivers are the cradle of the world’s earliest civilisations. Mythology and religion were born on their banks. They provide us with life-giving …
31st January 2003
This programme is part of the series Rivers of the WorldRivers are the cradle of the world’s earliest civilisations. Mythology and religion were born on their banks. They provide us with life-giving …
31st January 2003
For centuries, the Dutch have reclaimed land from the sea. But in 1953, the sea tried to take back a huge portion from the province of Zeeland in the south of the Netherlands. The worst flood in …
14th May 2003
As a young Amsterdam physician of Portuguese and Spanish Jewish descent, Samuel Sarphati (1813-1866) worked early in his career to improve the living conditions of broad sections of the population in …
13th August 2003
“Traces of War” is a book created by photographer Jan Banning about 24 men who survived slave labour on the construction of the notorious Burmese and Pakanbaroe railroads. The railway …
15th August 2003
This programme is part of the series Research FileBecause of the high water table in the Netherlands, even wood can be preserved in the Dutch soil for thousands of years, making this country a great …
12th September 2003
When Joseph Stalin died in 1953, many people all over the world truly mourned. Several generations later, this reaction is difficult to understand, given the millions of people who were killed under …
22nd April 2004
To mark the 375th anniversary of the birth of Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695), the Research File looks at this Dutch mathematician, physicist, astronomer and inventor who is widely regarded as one of …
30th May 2004
This is part of a series called “War and Forgiveness” about the victims and perpetrators of wartime atrocities, produced by Radio Netherlands together with WNYC and Sound Print. In this …
14th October 2004
This programme commemorates the 350th anniversary of one of the most bizarre events to take place in the 17th century. The day was October 12, 1654, a normal Monday morning in the Dutch city of …
3rd April 2005
The first programme in a three-part series commemorating the 225th anniversary of the arrival in Amsterdam of John Adams. He would later become the second president of the newly independent United …
30th April 2005
This programme was broadcast to mark Queen Beatrix’s 25th anniversary on the Dutch throne in April of 2005. It looks at her role as head of state and member of the government and her perceived …
4th May 2005
Harm van der Wal was coming of age during the Second World War, and he kept an insightful diary of those formative and dramatic years of his life: the front-line fighting so close to his home, the …
1st February 2006
In 1629, the newly built ‘Batavia’ was sailing to the Dutch East Indies on her maiden voyage, laden with silver coins for the purchase of spices, when she became the centre of a criminal …
9th February 2006
After the end of the Second World War, hundreds of Dutch children and adults who had been prisoners of the Japanese in the Dutch East Indies were sent to the Fairbridge Farm School in …
2nd April 2006
Otto van Eck was just seventeen when he died of tuberculosis in 1798. His name and life had been totally forgotten until the recent discovery of his unique diary. It was started when he was ten years …
25th April 2007
In the 17th century, people were on the move as much as they are today. The Thirty Years War sent millions of Europeans fleeing, and religious persecution prompted many to search for a new home. The …
22nd November 2008
Felix Meritis is one of the Netherlands most remarkable and important historical buildings. Lying on one of the grandest canals in Amsterdam, it has been the centre of the Dutch Enlightenment, …