Pop-up exhibition city pain bombing 1944 travels through Nijmegen

During the months of February and March, a pop-up exhibition about the city's pain from the devastating aerial bombardment of Feb. 22, 1944, will tour Nijmegen. The kickoff is this week at Dukenburg community center in Meijhorst. The exhibit shows how the bombs wiped out the historic downtown within minutes. Nearly 800 people were killed and thousands injured. The center burned for days.

The exhibition tells and shows the story of how entire generations of Nijmegen residents and families from the region were scarred by the bombing. For a long time the pain was hidden away. Reconstruction was given 'priority', moving on was the motto. Only from the late eighties did gatherings take place to talk about the pain and sorrow of the city. Bart Janssen later recorded the memories of the enduring city pain based on hundreds of conversations with Nijmegen residents. Since 2016, the fire line of the bombing can be seen in the city center through metal markers on the streets with the names of the victims. Near the memorial monument De Schommel, a wall with the photos of all the dead has also been on display for several years now

The traveling pop-up exhibition, created by Bregje Jaspers of the Brandgrens024 with the support of the 4&5 May Committee and the municipality, also reflects on the front city period after the liberation of the Waal city in September 1944. Nijmegen continued to be bombarded by the Germans for months, even until mid-March 1945. During that period, another thousand or so were killed in Nijmegen.

The exhibition at the Dukenburg community center will be on display until Feb. 15. After that, the exhibition will get a place in community center De Biezantijn in Waterkwartier until March 3. Then the panels will go to the library in Zwanenveld and from March 17 the story and the image of the 1944 city pain can be seen in community center De Ster in Lent in Nijmegen-North.