Hans Noach’s Jewish father was arrested and imprisoned in Camp Vught. When Hans came home from school, his mother and brother were waiting for him in the doorway. His mother gave him the choice: “You can go into hiding, or go with us to a work camp.” The 8-year-old Hans decided to stay with his family, and as a consequence of that, imprisonment.
Each year on the 18th of September, Eindhoven commemorates the liberation from the German occupiers by the American 101st Airborne Division and the Second British army with a torchlight parade in the centre of the town. On this day, after bitter combat, allied British ground troops entered Eindhoven from Valkenswaard, while American paratroopers approached the city centre from Son.
Since 1945, Eindhoven has organised a number of historical, cultural and sportive events for its liberation every year. It is the only town in the Netherlands who does this on the 18th of September. There is a large parade with veterans, army vehicles, various music corpses and sports clubs.
In 2019, Eindhoven will be making its war history more tangible with a unique, innovative, and interactive virtual reality city tour in which experiences from the war and the liberation come to life in 3D at various historic locations.
• The ”Band of Brothers” story by Dick Winters
• The ”Sinterklaas“ bombardment on the 6th of December - the date that Dutch children celebrate ”Sinterklaas“ with gifts and sweets - when the RAF bombed the Philips factories.
• Hans Noach’s story who was deported to Camp Vught and Auschwitz as a Jewish boy and survived.
• The virtual liberation of the city of Eindhoven on the 18th of September 1944.
• Strijp S, where camp refugees were given temporary lodging at an emergency hospital after the war.
An initiative to remember the 274 Jewish inhabitants of Eindhoven who were killed during the war. Small remembrance stones have been placed in the pavements in front of the houses where the victims lived.
A yearly run, dedicated to certain liberators of Eindhoven.
