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We are now standing in the very heart of Arnhem, next to the Eusebius church, also known as the Big Church. It looked very different before th…
We are now standing in the very heart of Arnhem, next to the Eusebius church, also known as the Big Church. It looked very different before the Second World War. Its tower was much smaller and there were houses closely surrounding it. When fighting between the British and the Germans first broke out, the church caught fire. The city’s fire brigade came to put the fire out but were prevented from doing so by German soldiers. The tower burnt down completely. The people of Arnhem were able to hear the large bronze bells crashing to the ground. The tower collapsed even further during the last winter of the war and the church’s nave was also reduced to ashes. Only a few parts of the thick stone walls remained standing. After the war, there were heaps of rubble 15 to 20 metres high around the church. The tower had half-collapsed and pointed up to the sky like a burnt finger. For a long time, this became the symbol of what had happened to Arnhem during the Second World War.
