Kazemattenmuseum

The Kazemattenmuseum Kornwerderzand is located in a beautiful location on the Afsluitdijk near the grand sluices. Experience how Dutch soldiers felt when they fought the German occupiers in 1940. Kazemat' is the Dutch word 'bunker'. There is also an essential difference: the walls of bunkers are much thinner than the three-metre thick walls of the Dutch Kazematten (plural of Kazemat).

History of the Kazemattenmuseum

In the only place in Europe, the German Blitzkrieg was stopped at the Kazematten in the May days of 1940. Only 225 Dutch soldiers prevented 17,000 Germans from invading the country. The museum's visitor centre was renovated and expanded in 2010. In memory of the deceased, three monuments have been erected: for the crew, for Captain Boers and Deputy Commander Lieutenant Ham.

About the Kazemattenmuseum

The entire Kornwerderzand position originally consisted of seventeen casemates and three bunkers.
In total there are six Kazematten and one bunker open to the public. In the casemates you will find the same equipment as in the May days of 1940. You can see six casemates and one bunker: the sleeping places, the original (still working) telephone exchange and the kitchen.

The Casemate Museum is also fun for children. There are real cannons they can arrive at and they can make an exciting treasure hunt: various tasks have to be carried out and a code has to be cracked. If this is successful, the participant may call himself a qualified 'Secret Agent' and he or she will receive a suitable reward! In the museum you get a good idea of the atmosphere and situation in which soldiers had to live during the mobilization, the German attack, the resistance, the fatal flight of the Lockheed Hudson and the firearms of WW II. An impressive museum where you don't have to use your imagination to get a good impression of how things used to be.