On May 5, the Atlantikwall Museum Noordwijk organized a freedom meal in one of the bunkers. In the context of 80 years of freedom, descendants of English and German soldiers, of Englandvaarders and of Jewish victims were brought together. It sometimes led to speeches with emotion, but above all to beautiful moments together.
In addition to provincial deputy Mrs Van Leeuwen, the director of the National Holocaust Museum and the chair of the Central Jewish Consultation were also present. This also brought a lot of attention to the increasing anti-Semitism.
Celebrating freedom in a bunker complex
At the beginning of this year, the Noordwijk museum was asked by the province of South Holland to organize a freedom meal. Celebrating freedom in a bunker complex of the formerly infamous Atlantic Wall of Nazi Germany, in a setting of military heritage. That is special. But at the same time also a very nice idea, because the Atlantic Wall museum symbolizes war and liberation.
With the support of the province and the V-fonds, this challenge was taken up. After a tour of the enormous bunker complex, 30 guests sat down at the table in the former ammunition bunker around noon. With descendants of Englandvaarders, of English and German soldiers, and of Jewish victims. A number of schoolchildren were also invited.
Descendants of English and German soldiers and Englandvaarders
Special was the presence of two children of a German soldier who was stationed in the bunker complex in Noordwijk during the war. After the war he married a girl from Sassenheim. Both children had come from Germany especially for this freedom meal and presented vice-chairman André van der Niet of the museum with a book about ‘Batterie Noordwijk’: “As a gesture of reconciliation, for peace for all of us.”
Thanks to Arend Dubbelaar and Rinus Noort, there were also 4 English guests present who visited the grave in the cemetery in Noordwijk of, among others, their uncle, a gunner of the Royal Air Force who was shot down above the North Sea. “Thanks to their deaths, we have been living here in freedom for 80 years. We owe them a lot!”
Jacques Noach talked about his father, the famous Jewish Englandvaarder Sally Noach. On his journey via the southern route, he saved the lives of hundreds of Dutch refugees in Lyon. In 1942, Sally Noach was received as a hero in England.
Holocaust and anti-Semitism
Chairman Victor Salman of the museum called attention to perhaps the darkest page of the Second World War, the Holocaust. With 6 million Jewish victims, including more than 100,000 from the Netherlands. In Noordwijk, 20 villagers were also deported and murdered in the concentration camps, wiping out the entire Jewish community of Noordwijk in one fell swoop.
Salman stated that too much was looked the other way and cooperated with the deportations; that creates a responsibility for all of us. Nevertheless, we have seen a very sharp increase in anti-Semitism in recent years, with insults, intimidation and violence against our Jewish fellow citizens.
“That is why we, as a war museum, feel it is our duty to make a statement against this increasing hatred of Jews. We must not abandon the Jewish community in the Netherlands again”.
Director of the National Holocaust Museum, Prof. Emile Schrijver, and chairman Chanan Hertzberger of the Central Jewish Consultation expressed their gratitude for the outspoken support against anti-Semitism. They experience that freedom has not been self-evident for them lately, and called on everyone to stand up where others try to limit the freedom of the Jewish community. A call that was supported with applause by all present.
