Every design for Aalten

Step inside the Nationaal Onderduikmuseum in Aalten and the war comes very close: this is a museum about going into hiding, in a village that knew it well. The village lies in the Achterhoek, in the far east of Gelderland, right up against the German border, roughly halfway between Lichtenvoorde and Bocholt and between Varsseveld and Winterswijk. A settlement already stood on the Aalter Es, the old field around which the village grew, over a thousand years ago.

There is a particular pride in Aalten's past. It had the only horn industry in the Netherlands: from buffalo horn shipped in from Asia and South America, local craftsmen turned pipe stems, combs, buttons and whistles for well over a century. Textiles brought work too, and the Aaltens Industrie Museum keeps both trades alive. Many families left for America in the nineteenth century, some for their faith and some after failed harvests. The Synagoge Aalten still stands in the village.

For everyone who stayed, and for those who come back to visit, the fields, the border and the old Es all mean the same thing: this is where you belong.