Social consequences

The construction of the Atlantic Wall has had far-reaching consequences for the inhabitants of Dutch coastal communities. Every single coastal town and village was affected by the creation of a Sperrgebiet – a closed zone accessible only to civilians involved in activities that served the German interest. To the military authorities, the fewer onlookers in this sector, the better.

Forced expulsions and evacuations starting in 1942
The German Winterausbauprogramm [winter construction program] as the Atlantic Wall project was known, got underway in 1942 – and with it, eviction of civilians all along the coastline. The width of the path to be cleared, which ranged from a few hundred meters to several kilometers, depended on the strategic significance of the site and the extent of urban construction. The most rigorous clearance was carried out in important port areas, such as Den Helder, IJmuiden, Scheveningen, Hoek van Holland and the Scheldt estuary. These locations were thought vulnerable to enemy attack, so the general population was forced to leave. Most of their houses were subsequently occupied by people whose function made them locally indispensable. Evacuees who were considered of some economic and social utility in the Sperrgebiet [closed area], were relocated to surrounding communities. Others – the “unproductives”, such as the elderly – were sent off to the north and east of the country.

Forced demolitions after 1943
Beginning in 1943, the German occupying forces took it one step farther: they insisted on an unobstructed field of fire in and around their land fronts and their tank obstacles. Houses along seaside boulevards, and those directly behind, were ordered torn down. This resulted in entire districts of urban and port areas, such as The Hague, IJmuiden and Den Helder, being demolished. Over 250,000 inhabitants of coastal communities were forced to vacate their homes and seek refuge elsewhere, often by moving in with other families.

After the war: residential construction and repair
After the war, over a third of the evacuees were unable to return to their place of origin. There simply were not enough homes left. The coastal communities of North Holland alone needed 6500 new units. In the province of Zuid-Holland, with its severely damaged residential areas of The Hague, Scheveningen, Katwijk aan Zee and Noordwijk, the numbers were even higher. Only those former inhabitants indispensible for the local economy, and who lived too far away, were permitted to return. Everyone else had to commute in from the surrounding towns. Those without economic ties, had to remain were they were.

Reconstruction architecture
The Dutch coastal communities were rebuilt in the fifteen years following the war. To this day, many a Dutch seaside town is visually dominated by reconstruction style architecture which strikes the modern observer as stark and dull. Post-war generations have never known anything else… The painful history of these coastal areas during the last war has never been studied except by local historians. This website strives to begin to remedy this situation by making this historical research available to a wider public.