A hiding place for people in hiding from the Second World War was discovered by accident in a shop in Leeuwarden. The space was found during a renovation and had remained untouched all these years.
The spot, a space under an attic floor, was hidden under carpet. “Due to a leak, we saw that there was a hatch in the floor. We cut away the carpet to see what it was,” owner Ronald Wetting tells. Omrop Fryslân.
Under the hatch is a space about one meter deep and two meters wide. The space is a special find. “There are even cans of soup from the war. Most of the cans have now been opened because they are outdated, but you can still read the label on some of them,” says Wetting. “You really step into a time machine.”
Hiding in your own house
The site was used by Wolf Salomon during World War II. He owned the property and had a shop where he sold fabrics. In 1941, the Germans banned Jews from owning a shop any longer. Salomon handed over his shop to his non-Jewish wife.
After two years it became too dangerous for Salomon to show himself on the street. He goes into hiding in his own house. “That must of course have had major consequences,” says Otto Kuipers of the Frisian historic center Tresoar. “He was probably in the attic. If danger threatened, he could quickly enter the hiding place.” It was in the attic floor.
For about two years Salomon stayed out of sight of the German occupier and thus survived the war. He moved to Amsterdam in 1945.
The shelter in the store was put on display during the ‘Open Jewish Houses and Resistance Fighters Houses’ in recent days. Interested parties can then visit houses where people in hiding were hiding. After today, the hiding place will be sacrificed for the renovation. “But we want to keep telling this story,” says Ronald Wetting. “Because war is of all ages and we must never forget that. We must be happy with all the freedom we have.”
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