From 14 May 1940 to 5 May 1945, the Netherlands were occupied by Nazi Germany. Almost every Dutch person was affected by the consequences of the occupation. The choices and dilemmas facing the population became more far-reaching. How did Dutch people respond to the increasing oppression of the occupying power? Who took up resistance? Why, and in what ways?
You'll see, hear and read fascinating stories about the exceptional as well as the everyday.
History of people
The permanent exhibition takes visitors back to the forties, the period of the German occupation during World War II. Streets and walls full of photos that make up the décor of the Dutch Resistance Museum help evoke the climate of the war years. The authentic objects, photos and documents, film and sound fragments, tell the history of people who lived through that period.
The exceptional as well as the everyday
The exhibition covers all forms of resistance: strikes, forging of documents, helping people to go into hiding, underground newspapers, escape routes, armed resistance, espionage. You’ll see, hear en read fascinating stories about the exceptional as well as the everyday in a time of occupation in which most people were far too embroiled in day-to-day worries to even think about daring to involve themselves in any kind of resistance, and in which still others opted for collaboration.
Dilemmas
Moving personal documents and photographs, supplemented with video images and sound fragments, tell the story of people who were confronted with dilemmas by the German occupation, and were forced to make choices. At various points, the visitors are themselves involved very directly in such dilemmas.
