Verzetsmonument

The Verzetsmonument in Utrecht commemorates Dutch resistance fighters and war victims, with particular attention to the city’s own history. Corinne Franzén-Heslenfeld created this limestone memorial in Utrecht.

The sculpture presents a woman with a turned torso, draped skirt, and torch held firmly in both hands. The raised torch represents resistance during the occupation. White natural-stone blocks form the pedestal, which carries a poem by Jan Engelman. Utrecht’s remembrance ceremonies take place here each year.

Franzén-Heslenfeld developed the final design after an earlier proposal showed a woman with a clenched fist and side scenes. Those side scenes disappeared from the finished monument. Nearby Dom Cathedral forms a historic backdrop, while the sculpture’s strong shapes help it remain visually distinct. Locals sometimes call the monument Mien with her ice cream cone.

Community funding through a lottery helped bring this Utrecht memorial into being. The poem keeps Utrecht’s wartime memory present on the pedestal.