On September 4, 1944, the long-awaited day finally arrives. After a four-year occupation that seems to have lasted an eternity, Antwerp is finally liberated by the Allied forces. What the people of Antwerp do not realize at that moment is that their torment is not yet over. In the dark corridors of underground factories in the heart of the German Reich, forced laborers worked day and night on a new secret weapon: flying bombs that could hit targets up to 240 kilometers away.
Ultimately, around 3,000 Antwerp residents and more than 600 Allied soldiers lost their lives in this terror campaign, which lasted five months. The fast, high-flying V2 rockets proved particularly deadly, while Allied anti-aircraft guns managed to shoot down 2,183 V1s.
Antwerp Remembers
The V-bomb terror walk is an initiative of Antwerp Remembers, an organization that commemorates the scars of war in Antwerp under the motto 'Always free, never taken for granted'. V-bomb terror is one of three walks organized by Antwerp Remembers that you ErfgoedApp discover via the ErfgoedApp . The other two follow in the footsteps of the resistance and the persecution of the Jews.
Time to test this exciting walk, with the ErfgoedApp hand.
The deadliest day of the V-bomb campaign: the attack on the Rex cinema
The V-bomb terror walk begins immediately with the deadliest V-bomb strike of the entire war. On December 16, 1944, a V2 bomb strikes the heart of Antwerp, hitting Cinema Rex. Like many other cinemas in the city, it provides entertainment for civilians and soldiers alike. On that fateful day, the cinema is full and De Keyserlei is bustling with activity. In the blink of an eye, more than 500 people were killed and Cinema Rex was reduced to a smoldering wreck. In the ErfgoedApp , I ErfgoedApp the testimony of Jim Mills, a British soldier who narrowly survived the impact.
Today, there is still a cinema at the site of the tragedy. It is difficult to imagine that this place was the scene of a massacre more than eighty years ago.
The horror of the V-bombs is not limited to people from the affected cities.
The walk continues towards Groenplaats. This centrally located square next to the cathedral was used shortly after the war to display V-bombs. On the square, the app also explains another type of victim of the bomb: forced laborers who had to assemble bombs in underground bunker complexes. After Allied bombers began destroying German production sites in 1943, the Germans decided to continue the work underground. Under the code name 'Dora', a veritable underground concentration camp was set up near Nordhausen (central Germany). Some 60,000 prisoners worked day and night on the bombs. The app features Leopold Claessens, who, as a political prisoner, was forced to help build the complex. As one of a thousand Belgian forced laborers, he recounts the horrors of Dora.
After the war, Allied soldiers set up a V-bomb on Groenplaats. On the left you can see Groenplaats today, on the right in 1946. ©Kasper Vanderzeypen, Antwerp Remembers
Decision
The walk ends at Teniersplaats, where I hear Simone De Ceunynck's testimony. She escapes with a scare when a V2 rocket hits nearby. Once again, the V-bomb walk offers a unique insight into how the nightmare became reality for thousands of Antwerp families. The material and human damage is enormous, but without the efforts of the Antwerp volunteers, it could have been much worse.
Would you like to hear the stories about the courageous volunteers and the emotional testimonies of the people of Antwerp? Start the walk in the ErfgoedApp or visit Antwerp Remembers for more information about the various projects.
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