Breda, May 1940: 50,000 People Facing Invasion
On 11 May 1940, French units take up positions around Breda to hold a defensive line behind the river Mark. The town, the northernmost point of this arrangement, is set to face violent fighting. Mayor , who had prepared an evacuation plan as early as 1939, is confronted with an immediate decision.
The inhabitants still do not know what awaits them. Staying means enduring the battle; leaving means casting an entire population onto the roads, with no certainty as to the safest direction, while neighbouring Belgium is also being invaded.
The choice must be settled within a few hours, on Whit Sunday.
Breda, May 1940: what to decide for the 50,000 inhabitants facing the German advance?
Breda's administration chose to evacuate the entire population southward, into Belgium. On the morning of 12 May, the roughly 50,000 inhabitants were split into 2 columns: one heading toward Zundert and Brabant, the other toward Antwerp via Hoogstraten, Mayor Van Slobbe having negotiated their reception with Antwerp's mayor . The columns were strafed by German aircraft; on 17 May, the bombing of a school in Saint-Nicolas (Sint-Niklaas) killed 51 refugees from Breda. About a hundred died in total. After the Dutch surrender on 13 May, repatriation began, with the last refugees not returning until February 1941.
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