#Museum
Museum Engelandvaarders
Nearly 3,000 Dutch people undertook the dangerous journey to England to later contribute to the Allied war effort against Nazi Germany and Japan. Some attempted to cross the North Sea directly, but most traveled via Southern Europe or Sweden. About 2,100 of them reached their destination. In a former German ammunition bunker, the Museum Engelandvaarders tells the stories of their perilous journeys and their service with the Allied armed forces.
The southernmost ammunition bunker of the German coastal battery in Noordwijk was, after the war, repurposed as an art storage facility due to the perceived threat from the Soviet Union. When the Cold War ended, protected art storage was no longer necessary, and for ten years the bunker housed the Atlantikwall Museum Noordwijk (see also “An Underground Museum” – Atlantikwall Museum Noordwijk).
In 2015, Museum Engelandvaarders took over the bunker. The stories of the Engelandvaarders are told primarily through images and sound, visitors can play a game, and there is a bookstore. Of the approximately 3,000 young men and women who set out on their journeys, 2,100 reached England, but many drowned or were captured and imprisoned by the German occupiers.
From the beach at Katwijk, twelve known attempts were made to reach England. Thirty-five young men were involved, mostly using a two-person folding canoe. Only four of these twelve attempts succeeded, with eight men reaching England alive. On the Katwijk Boulevard, the impressive bronze sculpture “Freedom Forward” depicts two canoeists and an interactive information panel commemorates these brave Engelandvaarders (see also “Wijken voor de Wal – the demolition of the Katwijk boulevard”).