Belgian Prisoners of War Memorial Plaque, Nijmegen
The inscription on the Plaque is In May-June 1940 the citizens of Nijmegen spontaneously offered assistance to tens of thousands of Belgian prisoners of war on their way to Nazi camps in cramped Rhine barges'. It was erected on 16 May 1992 by the National Belgian Federation of ex Prisoners of War. Between 30th May and 5th June, ninety barges, packed with a quarter of a million Belgian POWs, were moored on the Waal quay. The road bridge had been blown by the Dutch on 10th May and was lying in the water, blocking their way to the camps in Germany. Citizens from the surrounding districts of Nijmegen provided the starving prisoners with bread, water, milk and medical care. This, one of the first acts of resistance to the Germans in newly-occupied Holland, was quickly forbidden
