Cooperation is necessary for the many associations and organizations that are engaged in the commemoration of Operation Market Garden; the beginning of the liberation of the Netherlands in the Second World War.
It is a necessity to survive.
Future
That’s what Robert Croll, CEO of the vfonds (fund for peace, freedom and veterans) said last Friday in Oosterbeek.
According to Croll, there are more than eighty separate clubs in the south and east of the Netherlands, too many organizations that only want to arrange their own local commemoration.
“With a big, strong fist, you get more done, politically and financially, and to be able to transform from just remembering to experiencing freedom.”
The Liberation Museum in Groesbeek and Airborne Museum Hartenstein in Oosterbeek are, according to Croll, examples of museums that face the future.
Donation
The vfonds has given the Airborne Museum 750.000 euros for a large-scale restoration of the villa and renewal of the exhibitions.
“We also add the German, Polish and Dutch image to the British perspective of the Battle of Arnhem, and we restore the entire Hartenstein estate, which was the headquarters of the Allied Forces in 1944.” said museum director Sarah Heijse on Friday.
The museum works in the lead-up to the 75th commemoration of Market Garden in 2019 together with Ede, Wageningen and Arnhem, likewise important memorial places. So is there a common theme each year.
This year the resistance gets special attention. In Jubilee year 2019, the focus is on what the battle of Arnhem on the German side of the border has meant.
The whole modernization operation in Oosterbeek must be ready in 2019 and the costs go over 3 million euro.
