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We hope to see you soon at Openluchtmuseum.nl!
Life in a Moluccan barracks
From 12 April - Every day
In 1951 Moluccan soldiers from the Royal Netherlands Indonesian Army and their families were sent to the Netherlands by order of the Dutch government. In total, more than 12,000 people were transferred to encampments such as the Lage Mierde camp in Brabant, where 18 families came to live. At the Open Air Museum you can see what life would have been like for them.
Homesickness was rife – the suitcases next to their beds were their wardrobes, but also show that the occupants were ready to return home at any moment. For most of them, however, that moment never arrived.
In 1962 all the Moluccan families moved out. They were spread out across the Netherlands in newly built residential areas. In 2001 the Holland Open Air Museum acquired this last remaining barracks.
Here we invite you to share your memories, with each other but also with younger generations.