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Turn right round and look all around you. Nearly all of the buildings you can see here were built after the war. Before the war, this part of …
Turn right round and look all around you. Nearly all of the buildings you can see here were built after the war. Before the war, this part of Arnhem was the administrative centre of the provincial capital. Majestic office buildings and large town houses stood here, with trams passing by. It was also a residential area. There were large homes here on the market square and also further up, towards the ramp leading up to the bridge. This very old centre of Arnhem was wiped out during the fighting and during the bombardments and shelling that followed. There were still people living in the centre when the first action took place in September 1944. Civilians took refuge in the cellars of their homes. The British soldiers who were wounded by the bridge were taken care of in cellars, too. The Germans set fire to the houses in an attempt to smoke the British soldiers out. When there were lulls in the fighting, small groups of residents were able to escape, using tablecloths to wave as white flags. After the battle for the bridge, all the residents of Arnhem were evacuated. When they came back to this place six months later, they found that their neighbourhood had been completely destroyed.
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