Breda Mural 07 -- 'De Vlucht Uit Breda'

Literally 'The Flight Out of Breda' or, perhaps more clearly, 'Fleeing From Breda'.  The painting looks 'friendly' enough, but it is supposed to commemorate a day in 1940, during WW2, when the burgomaster, or mayor, of Breda took the decision to order some 50,000 citizens to flee the city because the Germans were going to occupy it.

Thousands fled to Belgium, hundreds went even further, some as far as Spain.  A group sought shelter in a trench when heavy fire between the Germans and the French began.  Forty of them were killed.  The family of Willem de Kok found an empty school and he thought it would be good to shelter there.  They had brought along the family donkey, laden with all the belongings they could take with them, but the donkey flatly refused to enter the building.  They were forced to go elsewhere.  Not long after, the school was heavily bombed.  It was this family with the donkey that inspired the artists.  https://blindwalls.gallery/walls/telmomiel/

Despite staying up till the dawn, during which the Dutch lost to Spain, we did not stay long in bed.  Supermarket errands, kitchen duties, and in the afternoon, drove to DHL to send the Viking the document I promised him, after which I thought of another mural.  Plan A, though, was blocked by a car and will have its turn another time.  I had already spotted this on the way there, so a simple U-turn and this became Plan B.  It is a very good example of not judging the book by its cover.  What a sad event The Flight was.  Now I have to check if Willem de Kok and his dear ones appear in my research.  I'm now also wondering if any of my 'missing' family members had joined that southbound caravan and perished.  And did any survivor of the 50,000 eventually return?  In the end, the flight had not been necessary as Breda surrendered without a shot.  The next thing to do now would be to go to the library and look for books on this topic.

Thankful for the history lesson today.