Second World War Jewish refuge to be displayed in Dutch Open Air Museum

A vacation house used as a refuge for Jewish people during the Second World War will be transported to Arnhem and displayed in the Dutch Open Air Museum. Since 2018, the vacation house has been stored in a barn in Zutphen.

The house was built in 1936 in the Warnsveld woods and was intended to be a vacation house. Yet, after the Kristallnacht in 1938, Jewish people fled to the house to seek refuge from the Nazi regime.

The house belonged to the family Gies who welcomed Jewish people fleeing from Germany.

Construction workers now dismantled the house to transport it to Arnhem. "We will rebuild it here and we will tell the story of Jewish refugees in this house. We tell this story so that everyone knows what happened in the past," Udo Feitsma from the Open Air Museum told Omroep Gelderland. "We will look at every part and do repairs wherever needed," Feitsma said.

Visitors to the Open Air Museum can view the hideout from September onwards, according to the museum.

Deze week kwam het vakantiehuisje van de familie Gies uit 1937 in delen richting Arnhem. We gaan de verhalen vertellen die erbij horen. Verhalen van verzetsmensen en joodse vluchtelingen. Het huisje wordt opgebouwd in deelgebied 't Veld. Lees hier meer 👉 https://t.co/g8KGOhV4IS pic.twitter.com/nTNQ8iresJ

— Openluchtmuseum (@Openluchtmuseum) January 15, 2022