May 1940

Rotterdam's city center after the bombing. The heavily damaged St. Lawrence Church stood out as the only remaining building reminiscent of Rotterdam's medieval architecture. 

The Rotterdam Blitz, was the aerial bombardment of Rotterdam by the Luftwaffe on May 14, 1940, during the German invasion of the Netherlands in World War II. The objective was to support the German troops fighting in the city, break Dutch resistance and force the Dutch to surrender. Even though preceding negotiations resulted in a ceasefire, the bombardment took place nonetheless, in conditions which remain controversial, and destroyed almost the entire historic city centre, killing nearly 900 people and making 85,000 others homeless.

The psychological and physical success of the raid, from the German perspective, led the Oberkommando der Luftwaffe to threaten to destroy the city of Utrecht if the Dutch Government did not surrender. The Dutch capitulated early the next morning.

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