The number of visitors to the Hideout Museum de Duikelaar in Nieuwlande has doubled since the commemoration of the dead on 4 May. According to the board, this has to do with the documentary that the NOS broadcast about the village.
Normally the museum has about 15 to 20 visitors a day, but that number has grown considerably, says volunteer Hanneke Rozema. “Now double that. We had a peak of 220 visitors on May 5. Liberation Day falls during the May holiday, of course, so that played a role. But we have never experienced such a growth before. About half of all visitors are talking about the documentary. They are especially impressed by Nieuwlande’s story.”
In the NOS documentary Nieuwlande – unyielding hiding village reporter Martijn Bink goes in search of the story of Nieuwlande during the Second World War. The village is known for the protection that residents offered to Jews. The broadcast of the National Remembrance Day this year also had a Drents touch. The NOS chose Nieuwlande – next to Dam Square in Amsterdam – as the second location to portray the two minutes of silence.
Rozema is happy with the growth, but still has a few things to worry about. “In the summer we usually have 80 visitors a day. Now we have to wait and see whether all the attention in the media has resulted in more visitors.” She says she has a good feeling about it. “We notice that visitors are already coming from all over the country, the documentary has certainly contributed to that.”
In 1985, the region was awarded the Israeli Yad Vashem award for acts of resistance from Nieuwlande. Only two villages in the whole world have received it.
Last year, the museum announced that it wanted more recognition for the story in Nieuwlande. “Visitors from the west are always surprised that they had never heard of the story of our village,” explains Rozema. That mission now appears to have been accomplished. “We regularly receive emails from people who have questions about the museum and the village history. The extra attention has certainly given us more name recognition.”
Nevertheless, the story of Nieuwlande has been given regular attention. Writer and historian Rutger Bregman published a book last year about the resistance hero Arnold Douwes, who housed hundreds of people in hiding in the village and surroundings. The hiding museum De Duikelaar was also featured in the liberation news of the NOS.