Hoe Duitse troepen in 1945 de eerste grote Zuiderzeepolder onder water zetten: Wieringermeer
Verzonken Glorie
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On Tuesday, April 17, 1945, at a quarter past twelve, German troops blew up the Wieringermeer dike in two places. It was not yet three weeks before the liberation. The first large polder of the Zuiderzee Works, reclaimed from the sea fifteen years earlier, filled up within two days, averaging nearly four meters deep. Nearly 7,000 residents and one to two thousand people in hiding fled. No one drowned, but when the water receded in December, 400 farms, 1,000 homes, seven schools, and two churches turned out to be destroyed.
This is the story of a polder that began on the drawing board. Of the Lely and Leemans pumping stations, which pumped from February 10, 1930, until the seabed was dry on August 21, even before the Afsluitdijk was completed. Of the Wieringermeer Directorate, which determined who was allowed to farm there, what the farms looked like, and how many villages were to be built. From the Jewish Work Village Nieuwesluis, where young refugees from Germany and Austria learned a trade starting in 1934, until the occupying forces evacuated it on March 20, 1941. From the weeks before the disaster: the profile drawings of the dike that went missing on February 10, 1945, the wells that never got finished, and the raid in Schagen. And from the day itself: the mayor who was informed at four o'clock in the morning, the families on the Terp, and resistance fighter A.C. de Graaf, who was arrested and shot at the edge of the polder.
Why the occupying forces flooded the polder so shortly before the end remains uncertain to this day: fear of airborne landings, leverage during negotiations, or revenge—all three are mentioned in reliable sources. Sources also differ regarding the time the residents were given: only a few hours according to the Regional Archive Alkmaar, and almost nine hours between the first warning and the explosion according to the Zijper Museum. The Wieringermeer is not a vanished place. On December 11, 1945, the polder was dry again, harvesting was already underway in 1946, and today nearly 14,000 people live in Wieringerwerf, Middenmeer, Slootdorp, and Kreileroord combined—twice as many as in 1945. What disappeared underwater in April 1945 was fifteen years of pioneering work. What the polder preserved is still visible: the two Wielen and the Dijkgatbos behind the 1945 dike, the ‘Gat in de dijk’ monument on the Noorderdijkweg, the Lely and Leemans pumping stations, the Werkdorp community center with the 197-stone memorial, and De Maaier in Wieringerwerf. Campus de Terp now stands on the terp where twenty-three people waited for three weeks in 1945 for the water to drop. Did you grow up in the Meer, or is something incorrect? Please post it below. What you will learn
• How the Zuiderzee Works drained the Wieringermeer between 1927 and 1930, and why Dirk Roosenburg's pumping stations are still standing
• How the Wieringermeer Directorate selected tenants, what the Jewish Work Village Nieuwesluis was, and how it came to an end in 1941
• How the occupying forces prepared the inundation starting in February 1945, what happened on April 17, and what motives historians cite
• How the polder dried out again on December 11, 1945, what the reconstruction cost, and what can still be seen today at the Gat in de dijk
Educational and historical material. Main sources
• O. Hoes, Inundation of the Wieringermeer in April 1945. Reconstruction of the dike breach and flooding, Tijdschrift voor Waterstaatsgeschiedenis 20 (2011)
• Zijper Museum: Flooding of the Wieringermeer April 17, 1945 (L.F. van Loo, 2003) and the Niestadt photo collection
• Regional Archive Alkmaar, GeschiedenisLokaal: The Wieringermeer underwater and The Wieringermeer drained again
• Historical Society Wieringermeer: history of the polder, Lely pumping station, A.C. de Graaf and the memorial
• Westerbork Camp Memorial Centre, Westerbork Portraits: The Jewish Work Village (2020)
— and other sources
#history #Netherlands #Wieringermeer #ZuiderzeeWorks #WorldWarII #NorthHolland #polder
ℹ️ About this video
Educational and historical material. The script, research, and editing are original work, based on the sources in the description. The visual reconstructions and the narrator's voice—a fictional character—were created using AI; for illustrative purposes, these are not real recordings or authentic archival footage. The story has been simplified for a broad audience and may contain minor approximations. Purpose: to inform and to remember.
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Hoe Duitse troepen in 1945 de eerste grote Zuiderzeepolder onder water zetten: Wieringermeer
Verzonken Glorie
5,038 views
On Tuesday, April 17, 1945, at a quarter past twelve, German troops blew up the Wieringermeer dike in two places. It was not yet three weeks before the liberation. The first large polder of the Zuiderzee Works, reclaimed from the sea fifteen years earlier, filled up within two days, averaging nearly four meters deep. Nearly 7,000 residents and one to two thousand people in hiding fled. No one drowned, but when the water receded in December, 400 farms, 1,000 homes, seven schools, and two churches turned out to be destroyed.
This is the story of a polder that began on the drawing board. Of the Lely and Leemans pumping stations, which pumped from February 10, 1930, until the seabed was dry on August 21, even before the Afsluitdijk was completed. Of the Wieringermeer Directorate, which determined who was allowed to farm there, what the farms looked like, and how many villages were to be built. From the Jewish Work Village Nieuwesluis, where young refugees from Germany and Austria learned a trade starting in 1934, until the occupying forces evacuated it on March 20, 1941. From the weeks before the disaster: the profile drawings of the dike that went missing on February 10, 1945, the wells that never got finished, and the raid in Schagen. And from the day itself: the mayor who was informed at four o'clock in the morning, the families on the Terp, and resistance fighter A.C. de Graaf, who was arrested and shot at the edge of the polder.
Why the occupying forces flooded the polder so shortly before the end remains uncertain to this day: fear of airborne landings, leverage during negotiations, or revenge—all three are mentioned in reliable sources. Sources also differ regarding the time the residents were given: only a few hours according to the Regional Archive Alkmaar, and almost nine hours between the first warning and the explosion according to the Zijper Museum. The Wieringermeer is not a vanished place. On December 11, 1945, the polder was dry again, harvesting was already underway in 1946, and today nearly 14,000 people live in Wieringerwerf, Middenmeer, Slootdorp, and Kreileroord combined—twice as many as in 1945. What disappeared underwater in April 1945 was fifteen years of pioneering work. What the polder preserved is still visible: the two Wielen and the Dijkgatbos behind the 1945 dike, the ‘Gat in de dijk’ monument on the Noorderdijkweg, the Lely and Leemans pumping stations, the Werkdorp community center with the 197-stone memorial, and De Maaier in Wieringerwerf. Campus de Terp now stands on the terp where twenty-three people waited for three weeks in 1945 for the water to drop. Did you grow up in the Meer, or is something incorrect? Please post it below. What you will learn
• How the Zuiderzee Works drained the Wieringermeer between 1927 and 1930, and why Dirk Roosenburg's pumping stations are still standing
• How the Wieringermeer Directorate selected tenants, what the Jewish Work Village Nieuwesluis was, and how it came to an end in 1941
• How the occupying forces prepared the inundation starting in February 1945, what happened on April 17, and what motives historians cite
• How the polder dried out again on December 11, 1945, what the reconstruction cost, and what can still be seen today at the Gat in de dijk
Educational and historical material. Main sources
• O. Hoes, Inundation of the Wieringermeer in April 1945. Reconstruction of the dike breach and flooding, Tijdschrift voor Waterstaatsgeschiedenis 20 (2011)
• Zijper Museum: Flooding of the Wieringermeer April 17, 1945 (L.F. van Loo, 2003) and the Niestadt photo collection
• Regional Archive Alkmaar, GeschiedenisLokaal: The Wieringermeer underwater and The Wieringermeer drained again
• Historical Society Wieringermeer: history of the polder, Lely pumping station, A.C. de Graaf and the memorial
• Westerbork Camp Memorial Centre, Westerbork Portraits: The Jewish Work Village (2020)
— and other sources
#history #Netherlands #Wieringermeer #ZuiderzeeWorks #WorldWarII #NorthHolland #polder
ℹ️ About this video
Educational and historical material. The script, research, and editing are original work, based on the sources in the description. The visual reconstructions and the narrator's voice—a fictional character—were created using AI; for illustrative purposes, these are not real recordings or authentic archival footage. The story has been simplified for a broad audience and may contain minor approximations. Purpose: to inform and to remember.