The municipality of Westerveld is committed to the arrival of a permanent war museum in the municipality. This is apparent from the heritage vision drawn up by the municipality. The museum should contain information and objects from the Second World War and the Cold War. Other options are also being explored to increase the perception of these themes among a large audience.
“Precisely because of the importance of taking current and future generations into the horrors associated with this heritage, that story is so incredibly important,” the municipality writes.
The ideas for a war museum are not new. Shepherd Jelle Kootstra has been working for years on a permanent museum with war objects. Cutlery, a World War II bomb or a German helmet, Kootstra has found many remarkable objects in recent years. He had previously displayed it in a shed behind his parents’ house. Even without advertising this location, the barn already attracted a few thousand people a year. But since the farm was sold, Kootstra has been looking for a permanent place for the collection.
In 2019 a temporary museum opened at the Holtingerveld sheep herd. The collection will probably now be housed at the same entrance gate.
The municipality of Westerveld has many traces of the Second World War, such as the war airfield on the Havelterberg, the mock airfield at Wateren, the Frieslandriegel – German defense line through three provinces – along the Drentse Hoofdvaart, the constable’s house in Wapse and various war memorials.
It is mainly in the vicinity of the war airport where Kootstra has found most objects in recent years. Fliegerhorst airfield was a German support airfield and was built during the Second World War. The location of Havelte was ideal for the Germans because they could intercept planes from England well. The Darp hamlet had to make way in its entirety for the construction of the airport.
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