Having tied down three German divisions in battle, the Poles skilfully drove the enemy out of the town, saving it and its inhabitants from casualties and destruction. They then spent the winter in Breda, forging warm ties with the local residents. One result of this was that several hundred Polish soldiers settled there after the war.

Commemoration of the liberation of Breda by the soldiers of General Stanisław Maczek

On the anniversary of the end of the Great War ( 1914–1918 ) and the ‘ ’ (Day of Independence ), 11 November 1944, by a special resolution of Breda City Council , honorary citizenship of the city was conferred upon all the soldiers of General Maczek’s 1st Division.

Since then, it has often been said that Breda is the most Polish city in the Netherlands. This is evidenced by the diversity and multitude of ways in which the achievements of Poles are commemorated. One such example was a grassroots initiative in the 1970s by three Dutch history enthusiasts to establish a private museum. During one of his visits to Breda, General Stanisław Maczek bestowed his name upon it. In 1981, the Breda-Polen 1939–1945 Museum Foundation was established to manage it. The museum’s rapid expansion followed in 1997, when , its headquarters were moved from a private flat to one of the buildings of the former barracks.

Maczek Memorial Breda – the beginnings

There are three Polish Cemeteries of Honour in and around Breda. The largest of these, and also the largest Polish war cemetery in the Netherlands, is situated on Ettensebaan. Here, in accordance with his wishes, lies its commander, General Stanisław Maczek, amongst 161 Polish soldiers of the 1st Armoured Division.

As the museum was closed in 2017, the Maczek Memorial Breda was opened near the cemetery in 2021.

The Breda-Polen 1939–1945 Foundation was responsible for the construction of the new site, with the support of the Breda City Council , the of the province of North Brabant, and the VFonds (the Dutch National Fund for Peace, Freedom and Democracy), as well as the General Maczek Memorial Foundation, the General Maczek Museum Foundation and the Association of Families of the 1st Polish Armoured Division. At , the exterior of the building features a striking twenty-metre-high wall made of ‘graphic concrete’, on which photographs of the liberation of Breda have been displayed.

The museum was opened on 24 October 2021 (on the 77th anniversary of the liberation of Breda) in the presence of the families of the Maczek soldiers and, amongst others, the Polish Ambassador to the Netherlands, the Mayor of Breda, the Director of the Museum of Polish History, the Chairman of the Maczek Memorial in Breda, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and the residents of Breda.

Maczek Memorial Breda – exhibition

The centrepiece of the permanent exhibition is an interactive multimedia wall (measuring 3 x 9 metres, the largest installation of its kind in the Netherlands) created by the Museum of Polish History, available in three languages (Dutch, Polish and English). A large part of it is taken up by a map of Europe. The installation recounts the complex history of Poland and the Polish people during the Second World War in a way that is accessible to a Western audience.

The museum houses an exhibition of historical artefacts collected over decades, including General Maczek’s original uniform, donated by his children. The building also houses a cinema, an Information and Documentation Centre, and a Hall of Reflection, which displays the personal details of soldiers buried in the nearby cemetery. Educational packs are available for primary and secondary schools.

The contribution of the Museum of Polish History

The foundation for the creation of the Maczek Memorial Breda was an international project carried out by the Museum of Polish History in collaboration with the Breda-Polen 1939–1945 Foundation. , this project gave rise to the travelling exhibition ‘General Stanisław Maczek and his soldiers ’ (2019, presented in Breda and Warsaw, amongst other places), which is accessible via an interactive multimedia wall in Breda. It consists of animations depicting the fates of six soldiers of the 1st Armoured Division – General Stanisław Maczek, Jan Bula, Stanisław Dancewicz, Władysław Kohutnicki, Kazimierz Matejczyk and Ludwik Staszek – from the outbreak of the war until its end. The common thread linking their stories is Breda. They settled in or around the town after the war or – like General Maczek – found their final resting place there.

The idea of erecting a memorial arose during the creation of this exhibition. It was enthusiastically received during the celebrations marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Breda (2019), in the presence of the President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda. One of the initiators was Frans Ruczynski, chairman of the General Maczek Museum Foundation and the son of a Maczek soldier. Indeed, the creation of the Maczek Memorial Breda would not have been possible without the involvement of the children and grandchildren of those who were liberated and of the liberators themselves.