City at War

MAS

Hanzestedenplaats 1, Antwerp

World War II

The ‘Celebrations’ exhibition ran on the fourth floor of the MAS until March and since September 8 a new permanent exhibition can be found here: City at War. This deals with daily life during World War II in Antwerp. The story is told through personal stories, in a very moving way.

Town hall, church and cinema

In the exhibition space, everything is arranged according to clusters, such as cinema, empty shops, school and factory. You will see the regulations of the German government, but also a Nazi flag that was removed from the tower of the cathedral by an Antwerp resident and sheets from the register of Jews. For each cluster there is also a video that briefly explains the stories. In the part about cinema you mainly see small scenes from the films that were shown in Antwerp cinemas at the time.

No longer safe in your own home

In the middle of the exhibition space is a room with stories. Persons and families who had to go into hiding, who were arrested or who cooperated in the Jewish roundups. A very heavy theme. For example, there is the story of Mala Zimetbaum, who was arrested during a station raid in 1942. She was transferred via the Dossin Kazerne to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she could help many fellow prisoners as a translator and courier. After an escape attempt, she was executed in 1944. One woman who survived Birkenau was Regine Beer. There are two of her identity cards in the exhibition, one with a ‘jew-juif’ stamp and the other without. On the advice of a friend, she reported that she had lost her identity card, so she received a new one without a stamp. Yet she was arrested in 1943.

The last year of the war: V-bombs

A very impressive theme is the last cluster about the last year of the war. Large photos are shown of the liberation of Antwerp on September 4, 1944. Everyone is partying in the streets. A month later the bomb terror resumed, until March 1945 the German armies fired V-weapons at Antwerp and its port. The two types: the V1 (a kind of airplane) and the V2 (a rocket) cause more than 4,000 deaths. The heaviest loss occurred on December 16, 1944 with an attack on the Rex cinema, with 567 deaths at that location alone. A threatening V1 bomb hangs from the ceiling and you hear shots and aircraft engines that suddenly stop.

Guided Tours

Would you like more information about this exhibition? Then book a tour of this interesting exhibition at Experience Antwerp, put my name as your preferred guide. You can also contact me directly and we will see how we can arrange this together.