Verzetsmuseum (Dutch Resistance Museum)

Verzetsmuseum (Dutch Resistance Museum) Review

From May 14, 1940, to May 5, 1945, the Netherlands was occupied by Nazi Germany. This museum, voted the best historical museum in the Netherlands, looks at the population's response: who resisted and how. All forms of resistance are covered: strikes, forging documents, hiding and escape (such as the Dutch-Paris route), armed resistance, and espionage. What is really great about the collections is that there's a rich context of everyday life told through personal documents, interviews, and sound fragments that not only communicate what occupied life really felt like but also engages visitors to consider their own behavior and choices today. In educational programs for children aged 10 and up, the concept of "Resistance" is given a positive twist, using examples from World War II to make kids aware of the importance of mutual respect, freedom, the fragility of democracy, and their own responsibility in dealing with discrimination and persecution in their own lives. Displays also show how some of today's main Dutch newspapers, like Het Parool (Password) and Vrij Nederland (Free Netherlands), began as illegal underground newsletters.