Liberation Route Marker 028: A roof over your head

A roof over your head
The museum buildings of the Netherlands Open Air Museum provided shelter to people who fled from the city centre of Arnhem in September 1944 during the battle for the bridge. The city was evacuated after the Battle for Arnhem and hundreds more people arrived then. As many of them as possible were allowed in, but there really does come a point when the place is full.

In September 1944, 10,000 British soldiers landed near Arnhem in an attempt to secure the bridge over the River Rhine. The operation failed and Arnhem became a front-line city. On 24th September, the Germans gave the order to evacuate the town centre. On 5th November it was the Alteveer district's residents' turn to leave their homes. The nearby open air museum seemed like a suitable place to take shelter. There was enough room for 200 evacuees at the Open Air Museum, but 600 turned up. They took shelter in the houses, the farms and the exhibition buildings.

People found food in the deserted town and both staff and t

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar & Liberation Route Europe
• Photos: Arjan Vrieze