Anonymous photographer. Picture made after the bombardment of the city of Rotterdam by Nazi planes in May 1940. Between 600 and 900 people were killed and the centre of the city was left in ruins. 32 churches and synagogues were destroyed. Among them the Sint-Laurenskerk. The church was rebuild after the war. 
The modernist phone box in front of the church was a design from 1932 by Leendert van der Vlugt (1894-1936) of the Rotterdam studio Brinkman and Van der Vlugt, who also designed the world famous Van Nelle Factory in 1931. The Van Nelle Factory is now on the UNESCO world heritage list. Leendert van der Vlugt's phone box would be the standard phone box in the Netherlands for more than 50 years. It can still be seen in the Boijmans van Beuningen museum in the city. Today the whole city of Rotterdam is a proud icon of modern architecture.