Walking in the Achterhoek A long-distance trail runs through the Achterhoek, connecting to the international route. This trail starts at the German border, passing through ’s-Heerenberg on its way to Vorden. There, the route splits towards Gorssel (with a connection to Zwolle) and Holten (with a connection to Groningen). In addition to this trail, there is a regional trail — a circular walk through the Achterhoek — as well as several themed walks. The Second World War left indelible traces in the Achterhoek. Each trace tells its own story — sometimes big, sometimes small. The leading roles belong to the victims and heroes of that time. Along various impressive routes, you will get to know the people and their stories.

The Netherlands

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A blanket of warmth 

Around the liberation, the Germans choose to block the way of the allies from the castle into the direction of Bocholt. The result is that&nbsp; this valuable building falls into ruins in just a few months‘ time. Rebuilding it was not feasible financially for a long time. When Peter Landers bought it privately in 2000, rebuilding the castle started.More about the role of castles during the warIn the middle ages most castles were primarily built for defensive purposes.&nbsp;Unexpectedly they get this role back during World War 2: as an observation tower, as a shelter for troops and officers, as a storage room for guns and ammunition. Thus they are becoming attractive targets for bombing. Castles are also destroyed deliberately to prevent them from being used by the enemy. Almost 44% of the total damage to castles and country estates was caused in the final year of the war. The months long stalemate at the front had a devastating effect on castles in the east of the Netherlands.

Haus Empel falls into ruin

Sometimes unfortunate civilians are the victims, when their farm or house is hit. On Saturday 13 October, 1942, at 2.30 p.m., an English Vickers Wellington plane crashes on the land of farmer B. Snelting in Megchelen. Five airmen lost their lives in this crash.Night nursePeople are getting used to the planes, the noise and all risks involved. Sometimes they only fly over. Sometimes they are accompanied by fighter-bombers which shoot at anything that looks German. In order to be able to manoeuvre more easily, the pilots sometimes drop their bomb load suddenly, with all disastrous consequences for the civilian population. So-called night fighters patrol regularly in the air. They are popularly called ‘Night nurse’: A night fighter but not the same one each night.

Air war

All of this is done under the leadership and coordination of a remarkable woman: Mies Neuhaus. She dies after the war in 1948. It is no coincidence that from here, you can see her grave.Mies NeuhausMies Neuhaus (1911–1948) had a German father and a Dutch mother. She was a schoolteacher in Hazerswoude but returned to Megchelen because of the war. She was the first to volunteer for the establishment of the emergency hospital. She quickly took charge. Together with other young women from Megchelen, Mies ran the emergency hospital with "superhuman dedication." After the liberation, Mies became seriously ill. She died in 1948. Officially of leukemia, but it is widely believed that she contracted an infection due to her intensive contact with gravely ill forced laborers.

Secret Emergency Hospital

The statue tells a powerful story, beginning in 1944 with the Razzia’s of 2 October and 2 December. It recalls the harrowing train and foot journey to the camp, the degrading conditions, the violence, and the many victims. It also honours the daring escape. The story ends with the painful reality that, for many, the horrors they endured remained unspeakable for a lifetime.

Megchelen deserves its statue

By the end of March 1945, as the Allies prepared to cross the Rhine to liberate the Netherlands, the situation became critical. During heavy shelling on 26 and 27 March, the castle was struck by numerous bombs and shells, ultimately succumbing to the destruction.After the war, it was partially rebuilt as emergency accommodation, providing temporary shelter for people from the nearby, heavily affected Ruhr region. Today, the castle has been converted into residential flats.

Castle Hueth is requisitioned

Among them was Richard van Norde (born 1927), one of the few who can still share his memories.&nbsp;The RazziaThe 17-year-old Van Norde was arrested on the Koude Horn in Haarlem in the early morning of 6 December 1944. Another 17-year-old, Gé de Boer, was also arrested while hiding in Elswout. Just hours earlier, German soldiers had cordoned off Haarlem, Bloemendaal, and Heemstede. Eight hundred German troops scoured every neighbourhood, every street, every house, searching for men to send to Germany for forced labour.&nbsp;Like an Animal..."One evening, I heard my roommate, Gerlof, sigh deeply and realised he was dead. Immediately, I grabbed the piece of bread he kept under his head in a kind of knapsack—otherwise, someone else would have taken it.""You lived like an animal here, you were fed like an animal, and you had to work like an..." He stops talking. He cannot go on. There are no words to describe what happened here.&nbsp;‘A Hell…’"...A hell," Van Norde calls the camp. "There was no running water, no food, no warm clothes, and every day we had to work extremely hard." The forced labourers were made to dig tank trenches and foxholes and erect barbed wire barriers to stop the Allies. "We had to break open the frozen ground with picks. Then you stood there all day, chopping, without food or drink, until nightfall. After that, you had to walk back to the camp for an hour, where you’d get a pan of soup. Well, soup... it was just water with a potato skin." Before long, the men suffered from malnutrition and dysentery, and many did not survive.

Here stood Camp Rees

In late 1944, early 1945, the first escaped forced labourer from Camp Rees knocked on this door. His stories about the horrors of the camp prompted Jan and Theo Venhorst&nbsp; to organise the large-scale escape.

Here the escape plan was devised

Megchelen's rescue operation Dutch prisoners of war were interned at the labour camp in the German town of Rees, for the digging of anti-tank trenches from December 1944 until March 1945.&nbsp; The conditions in the camp were terrible and in the four months that the camp was operational, approximately 330 of the 4000 men died from disease and maltreatment.During this time, a number of the prisoners managed to escape to the nearby village of Megchelen. This sparked the villagers into action and the younger villagers who knew the border region like the back of their hand, led a rescue operation that freed some of the prisoners and brought them back over the border onto Dutch soil. In secret, the village school was turned into a field hospital in order to look after the prisoners, many of whom were in a serious condition.True heroism Then, on 12th February 1945, the resistance in Megchelen intercepted a letter that announced the transfer of 300 of the camp's prisoners to the German town of Wesel. The resistance organised a diversion that managed to shepherd these prisoners into Megchelen with amazing precision. From there, the prisoners were taken to safe houses. In 2010 this act of heroism was finally commemorated with its own memorial.Liberation of Megchelen English and Canadian troops reached Megchelen on the morning of 28th March 1945. The German occupiers gave hefty opposition, but by the end of the day the battle had subsided and the occupiers had been driven away. Megchelen was the first Dutch village to be liberated north of the Rhine River. The price of freedom had been high: 52 houses had been completely destroyed, 49 had been damaged and only four houses in the village remained unscathed.