On the edge of one of Amsterdam’s many canals sits a bronze sculpture of a kind and wise-looking older woman. Most pass it by without realizing the important role this person played in the city’s history.
Alida Margaretha Bosshardt, better known as Major Bosshardt, was a leading figure of The Salvation Army in the Netherlands.
Born in 1913, she wasn’t particularly religious until she attended a Salvation Army meeting at 18 years old. Inspired, she joined the organization and started working in a children’s home in 1934. When World War II broke out, she saved the lives of dozens of Jewish children brought to the house by their parents. For her courageous actions, she was awarded the Yad Vashem award in 2004.
Following the end of the war, Bosshardt worked at the Salvation Army’s Dutch HQ in Amsterdam. While there, she noticed the organization was not active in Amsterdam’s red-light district. She decided to take matters into her own hands and established a center there, providing assistance to prostitutes, the homeless and drug addicts for the next 30 years.
Her worked gained her national fame, with Princess Beatrix even accompanying her on a secret visit to the red-light district. Bosshardt retired in 1978, and while she had been promoted to lieutenant-colonel, remained known as “Major Bosshardt”, hence the name of her memorial.
The statue of Bosshardt was unveiled in 2008, two years after her death. Created out of bronze by sculptor Kees Verkade, it is set in the very area where Major Bosshardt did most of her outreach. The following year, she was voted “The Greatest Inhabitant of Amsterdam of All Time”.
