The permanent, bilingual, exhibition of the Resistance Museum contains artifacts that tell the story of the Dutch Resistance. False ID papers, clandestine printing presses and spy gadgets explain the ways Dutch people faced the Nazi occupation. Temporary exhibitions explore wartime themes and modern-day forms of oppression.

A chronological story

The exhibition tells a chronological story from approximately 1930 to 1950, in which information is offered in various ‘layers.’ A visitor will get an overall picture of a rather indolent Dutch society in the thirties, experiencing the shock of the unexpected German invasion. In the forties, during the German occupation, both the oppression and resistance gradually intensified as the war progressed. Finally, the exhibition will make you realize that experiences of that time still play a role in today’s society.

Moving personal documents and photographs, supplemented with video images and sound fragments, tell the story of people who were confronted with dilemmas by the German occupation, and were forced to make choices.

The resistance

The museum’s main focus is the context in which the resistance took place. The context of everyday life in a politically and denominationally segregated society, in which the church played a very important role. The museum shows the context of a society in a time of occupation in which most people were far too embroiled in day-to-day worries to even think about daring to involve themselves in any kind of resistance, and in which still others opted for collaboration.

Using authentic objects as well as all kinds of modern techniques, the Dutch Resistance Museum evokes a powerful picture of the time, and ‘recounts’ events mainly on the basis of personal examples that appeal directly to visitors, and with which they can identify.