eye to eye with war

frisian streetscape

Eye to eye with war presents familiar and lesser-known stories to create a compelling impression of the war years, the resistance and the persecution of the Jews in Fryslân. Terrifying film footage surreptitiously made by a neighbour across the street captured the deportation of the De Jongh family in 1942. Also on view are photographs and film footage of a National Socialist gathering on the Wilhelminaplein (which the occupiers called 'Het Plein'). As in other cities in the Netherlands, the streetscape in Leeuwarden was inundated with German signboards. Photographs of the 1944/1945 Hunger Winter are also displayed. Approximately 70,000 hunger evacuees came to Fryslân, where the shortages were slightly less acute than in the rest of the country. German soldiers buried fallen English aviators with full military honours on the island Schiermonnikoog. Finally, unique film footage gives a special insight into the first days after the liberation: eruptions of joy in various villages and cities in Friesland, but also the darker side, such as arrests and the settling of scores.

Eye to eye with war was created in collaboration with Tresoar, the Fries Film Archief and Historisch Centrum Leeuwarden. The exhibition is made possible by Stichting Friesland 1940-1945.