This morning a column of old vehicles arrived at Slot Schagen that should give the public an impression of what it must have looked like around the liberation in 1945. Museum 1940-1945 Schagen and Museum collection ’39-’45 in Winkel work together to make it clear to people how important our freedom is
“The men from Winkel have all brought with them fantastic, original vehicles from the war, says Niekjan Grooff. He runs the Museum 1940-1945 in one of the towers of Slot Schagen. “They are today visiting the war museum here in Schagen. It’s a piece of history and I think we should be happy to live in a free country.”
“It was important and it is important. Freedom does not come for nothing,” says Henk Coehoorn of the Museum Collection ’39-’45 from Winkel, “It is good to show what happened here 80 years ago. And we still have to deal with threats. Right now you only have to turn on the television and you see the misery and violence coming towards you”
Liberation
Due to corona, this could not go on for two years. “This is actually still a bit in the context of 75 years of liberation,” explains Niekjan Grooff, “That was not possible then because of all the corona conditions. That is why they have now come to 77 years of liberation.”
They did not sit still at the museum in Winkel during the forced corona break. “We worked a lot on the vehicles, such as the restoration of this communication car”, says Henk Coehoorn, “It was used for communication from and to the units, but also to the ‘Staff'”
Busy
The vehicles are still at Slot Schagen until 5 pm. After the cars had been set up, interested parties immediately came to take a look. “At first I thought it was quiet”, says Niekjan Grooff with a smile, “But when they had lined up it immediately became busy. That’s great!”