Outdoor Expo Lingewaard

After the front line became stuck at the Linge, the southern part of the Betuwe turned into a ‘Men’s Island’. Most of the population had to evacuate, but four thousand men stayed behind to look after possessions and cattle. They lived in an eerie landscape of mud, minefields and destruction.

In the winter of 1944, eight people in a house on Nijmeegsestraat in Gendt ignored the German evacuation order. Amongst them were the Braam sisters, as well as a number of people who had gone into hiding: Harry te Riele, a married Jewish couple and a resistance fighter. Their only secret refuge in an emergency was a cramped space under the floor, which they called ‘das Loch’ (the hole).

“The side of the family that suffered the most pain never talked about the war. While the other side of the family continued to share their story.”

“They’re bringing presents again”, Wim Hendriks told his children when the aeroplanes appeared. A grim joke that would end in tragedy. The German tanks, the intended targets for the bombs, were long gone.

In the early morning of 27 November 1943 Germans arrived at the door of the Reformed Church in Bemmel. They had come to take away the bells. The bells were allowed to ring one more time for the marriage of the Sleiffer-Bruins. After that they were taken down.

In October 1944 the De Beijer family were looking for a safe refuge. When the Germans gave the order to evacuate, Mr De Beijer, a skipper on the inland waterways, made a choice. His boat ‘De vier gebroeders’ (The four brothers) was moored on the River Waal. It provided temporary accommodation for a large group of people: his ten children, grandparents, a nephew, a niece and two orphans of war. They lived all together in the hold.