urbanks - WWII Remnants

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World War Two Remnants

The rise of fascism in Europe in the 1930’s led to the Second World War, a war that lasted six years and one day, and brought utter destruction to vast swathes of the European continent. This page explores the important and historical European sites of that war. Click to explore further.

Warsaw Uprising Monument

On the 1st of September, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. 16 days later, on the 17th of September, Red Army soldiers of the Soviet Union entered Poland from the East. Poland was occupied, and its occupiers had a pre-agreed plan: to crush and destroy Polish culture, and subjugate its people to either German or Soviet rule.

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Reichswald Cemetery

The largest Commonwealth cemetery in Germany is the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, located deep in the ‘imperial forest’ near the historical city of Kleve. The Dutch border is less than three kilometres to the west, and Arnhem lies 40 kilometres to the north-west. This corner of Europe, the Niederrhein, was an area of fierce fighting during the later stages of the Second World War, and thousands of Commonwealth military personnel lost their lives during the battles that took place here.

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Möhne Reservoir Dam

The Möhne Dam, at the time of its completion in 1913, was the largest dam in Europe. The Möhne Reservoir, which the dam created by restricting the flow of the Ruhr River, was by far the continent’s largest Reservoir. At 650 metres long and 40 metres high, the dam created a reservoir with a storage capacity of 134.5 million cubic metres of water. It was vast!

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Overloon War Museum

Between the 30th of September, 1944, and the 18th October, the largest tank battle ever fought on Dutch soil took place in Overloon, a small village on the planes of the River Maas, just six kilometres north of the town of Venray. The belligerents were, on the one side, Nazi Germany, and on the other side, the Allies, mainly comprising of American and British forces.

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Oskar Schindler's Enamel Factory

Krakow is one of Europe’s best preserved medieval cities. Once the centre of Poland’s cultural and political life, the entire town centre is today listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, famed for its beauty and elegance. However, on the other side of the Wisla river, is a different Krakow, the industrial Krakow. It was here, in Zablocie the industrial Krakow, where three Jewish entrepreneurs – Michal Gutman, Izrael Kahn and Wolf Luzer – set up an enamel factory in 1937.

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Churchill War Rooms

The Churchill War Rooms opened on the 27th of August, 1939, just six days before Germany invaded Poland and eight days before Britain declared war on Germany. The world was at war, and it wasn't long before London was the target of aerial bombing, just as the defence chiefs had predicted it would be. Throughout the Blitz, as the bombs of the Luftwaffe rained down on London, Churchill and his government ministers met at the war rooms and discussed war tactics. It was the place, Churchill said in May of 1940, 'from which I will direct the war'.

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Krakow Ghetto

The formal resettling of the Jews of Krakow Jews began in April of 1940, when Hans Frank announced that Krakow was to be the ‘cleanest’ city in the General Government. Cleanliness, racial cleanliness, was to be achieved by expelling the Jews from Krakow, sending them off to forced labour camps or settling them in a purpose built, walled Ghetto in the Podgórze district, on the other side of the Vistula River to the Kazimierz district and historic centre.

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Airborne Museum ‘Hartenstein’

Hartenstein was a hotel located in the Dutch village of Oosterbeek. Situated on the Utrechtseweg, the main road into Arnhem, the hotel profited from the traffic and visitors that passed through on the way to and from Arnhem. It was this practical location, five kilometres west of Arnhem city centre, that led to it becoming HQ Hartenstein in 1944, the headquarters of the British 1st Airborne Division. It was here, from Hartenstein, where they planned the execution of Operation Market Garden.

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