Outdoor Expo Neder-Betuwe

This was a region that played a strategic role, due to the presence of the Betuwe Defence Line, of which Linie de Spees is part. This results in evacuations, a military presence and, ultimately, intense fighting.
Citizens were faced with the threat of evacuation, oppression and deportation. Labour camps were established here, the resistance was active and a number of aircraft crashed in the region.
After the Battle of Arnhem in September 1944 the Neder-Betuwe region found itself on the front line for seven months. This front line ran directly through Opheusden and Dodewaard, where Allied and German troops engaged in fighting. The hostilities forced thousands of residents to evacuate, with villages buffeted by shells. In April 1945 the Independent Belgian Brigade finally liberated the region.

“We get to go on the bus!”, Betty and Ietje Frank announced excitedly to Corrie Vink, their housekeeper. Little did they know that this bus journey would take them to Camp Vught.

“Ik rende naar de vuurzee toe en zag de piloot uit het toestel komen strompelen, zijn borst en armen stonden in brand.”

In April 1945 soldiers from the Independent Belgian Brigade were sent to the front line in the Betuwe region. On 17 April they attacked the German lines. The brigade’s 3rd battalion went into battle near Opheusden and the 1st battalion near Ochten.

“I had to find out everything about my father myself. I didn’t understand the word ‘executed’. It took me years before I could put all the pieces of the puzzle together.”

“We were on that ship for five days, with just a bucket for a toilet and hardly anything to eat. But the worst thing was not knowing whether we would ever return.”

In 1941 a camp that would have a dark history was built between Ochten and Kesteren. From August 1942 it became the destination for over a hundred Jewish forced labourers.