A monument right here in front of the Dutch branch of “Leger des Heils” on Oudezijds Voorburgwal 14, otherwise known as the Salvation Army.
A bronze statue of a lady sitting down by the canal in Amsterdam’s Red Light District is none other than Majoor Bosshardt.
The monument was commissioned to honour Alida Margaretha Bosshardt (1913 – 2007). She became an officer of the Salvation Army in 1934. This Leger des Heils on Oudezijds Voorburgwal has been established here as one of their Goodwill Centres since 1951, where Majoor Bosshardt used to live and worked. She spent many years of her life working as a social worker in the Red Light District to help prostitutes, the homeless and people struggling with addictions.
Alida was the public face of this organization. She made it to Lieutenant Colonel but remained known to the public as ‘Major Bosshardt’.
In 2004, she received the Yad Vashem award, Israel’s highest award, because she had placed 70 (Jewish) children in private hiding places during the Second World War.
In 2009, two years after her death, she was named “Greatest Amsterdammer of All Time”.
This statue was unveiled on 8 June 2013, on what would have been her 100th birthday.
A bridge nearby was named after her as well: Majoor Bosshardtbrug bridge or bridge number 211.
Appropriately overlooking Amsterdam’s Red Light District on Oudezijds Achterburgwal, near the Oude Kerk or Old Church. The statue and the bridge are 4 minutes walk away.
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