Museum close up: Engelandvaarders in Noordwijk-at Sea, the Netherlands

When you have booked a cycling tour with Holland Bike Tours we will provide you with a detailed route booklet including suggestions for restaurants for lunch and dinner, some information about the highlights along the way and our preferred museums. One of these museums is the Engelandvaarders in Noordwijk-at sea. In this item we like to explain more on why we think it is a great place to visit.

What is Engelandvaarders?
Experience the special story about the "Englandvaarders": men and women who escaped from the occupied Netherlands during the Second World War to continue the fight against Nazi Germany and Japan. Hundreds left in barely seaworthy boats, sometimes in a canoe. Many drowned at sea or were arrested, imprisoned or shot during preparation. Others made harsh journeys by land, via Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal and even Russia. More than 2000 Dutch people, after having overcome many difficulties, arrived in England.
In England the Engelandvaarders engaged in British and Dutch armed forces, the merchant navy or went to work for the government. Many British sailors from Australia also continued the fight against Japan. Of the 180 Dutchmen who were sent from England as secret agents to the Netherlands, 108 are Englandvaarders. Almost half of them fell victim to the lurid spy game between the British and Germans. Many died in the Mauthausen concentration camp.

How?
Museum Engelandvaarders uses modern audiovisual techniques. Young people are challenged to participate interactively in the story about their peers of that time. The museum wants to inspire them to make a choice that is current in every age of threat and tension: against indifference and before opposition to what is really not possible. Mindful of the words of Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema: 'moments occur in every human's life and he says to himself:" Well, this is not possible", and then he does something.'

Monument
The museum has an interactive monument with information about all Englandvaarders and their helpers. This memorial contains more than 2,700 names of men and women who are known to us as sailors of England. Through research in archives and contact with family of Englandvaarders or their helpers, this database is constantly updated. With the ticket that you get at the checkout you can get to know more about "your" Englishman in the monument.
Watch a short video about the museum here
Source: https://www.museumengelandvaarders.nl/over-ons/