Off The Beaten Path World War Two Sites In Europe
A Polish town used by the Luftwaffe for target practice, a Welsh prisoner of war camp and a Cretan village razed to the ground by the Nazis are a few of the fascinating off the beaten path World War 2 Sites in Europe to discover.
I’ve covered numerous other World War 2 sites around Europe (see the list at the end of the article), but in this piece I focus on some of the less-known sites around the continent. There are thousands of locations with World War Two histories, and this article gives a wide range of places across the UK and continental Europe with stories to tell.
It has taken me over 40 years to visit them, and I don’t suggest that you try to see them all. But there’s a fair chance that you may pass near one or more of them, in which case it’s well worth seeking them out.
In the article I explain the background of each site, and advise on how to get to each of them, suggesting tours or accommodation where possible. I hope you find it intriguing.
Westerplatte, Gdansk, Poland
Where the first shots of World War Two were fired
The German battleship Schleswig Holstein was on a courtesy visit to what was then the Free City of Danzig when it completely abused its guest status by firing on the Polish garrison stationed on the peninsula on the east side of the Martwa Wisła (Dead Vistula) river.
This was at 0450 on the morning of 1st September 1939, and the shots fired by the Germans were the first of what would soon be known as the Second World War. The garrison of 180 Polish soldiers repelled repeated attacks, despite being told that their Polish comrades would be unable to come to their aid.
Led by Henryk Sucharski, the Poles held out for seven days, thereby preventing any further German progress along the country’s coast. Sucharski was held as. A prisoner of war for most of the duration of the conflict,and died not long after its conclusion from peritonitis in 1946.
Regular boat trips run from the centre of Gdańsk to the Westerplatte peninsula, where you normally have around two hours to explore the site. This includes a Brutalist-style Communist-era monument (pictured), and a new exhibition centre which opened in April 2025. From there, a trail leads through the woods to the Monument to the Defenders of the Coast, and down to the beach, a beautiful spot.
Frampol, Poland
The forgotten Polish Guernica, obliterated by the Luftwaffe for target practice
The Nazis seldom needed a reason – or rather excuse – to murder. They massacred millions because of their Jewish origin, and thought nothing of doing the same to Sinti, Roma or homosexuals – anyone who didn’t fit their criteria for an Aryan master race. Anyone who happened to be in their way was considered a target.
And that included the people of Frampol, a town founded in the early 18th century in the Lublin region of southeast Poland. Built by Count Marek Antoni Butler, the focal point was a large central square, with three concentric quadrilaterals (it’s hard to tell whether they were also squares, or slightly rectangular) built outwards from them. From an overhead viewpoint, it would have looked like a target board with a bullseye and three outer circles.
There were no military targets in Frampol, nothing of any strategic significance. The town had a population of around 4,000 civilians. Reconnaissance photographs were taken around 9th September 1939, and small raids were conducted on the 11th and 12th. However, the main bombing raid took place on 13th September, when 125 aircraft were used to flatten most of Frampol. Some of the pilots even practiced their strafing techniques, mowing down people trying to flee the town.
Around half the population was killed that day, and almost 90 years later Frampol’s population is still only round 1,500. The Frampol bombing raid features near the end of Isaac Bashevis Singer’s short story, The Little Shoemakers. In this story, generations of the same family custom-make shoes for the local population, though several sons emigrate to the US in the early 20th century.
Only their father, Abba Shuster, remains, until the fateful day of the Nazi raid when his house is destroyed. The story has a happy ending when he is brought to the US by his sons, and rejuvenated by resuming his work there. But for many in Frampol, September 13th 1939 was their final day. The town’s name, and the events of that day, aren’t widely known, and the reason for this is that they were obscured and overshadowed by the countless atrocities committed by the Nazis – and later the Red Army – in the years that followed.
The Colossus of Prora, Rügen, Germany
The Nazis’ gargantuan holiday camp by the Baltic Sea
The Nazis aimed to control every aspect of people’s lives, and that included their leisure time and holidays. Their Kraft durch Freude (Strength Through Joy) organisation was responsible for this, selling citizens (deemed racially ‘pure’ enough) camping trips and flag-waving package holidays by the seaside. Their biggest project became known as the Colossus of Prora, close to a beach on the otherwise largely idyllic Rügen Island.
Prora was built between 1936 and 1939, and was intended to hold 20,000 visitors at any one time. The complex was originally an astonishing 4.5 kilometres (2.8 miles) long, and was partly inspired by the British Butlin’s holiday camps that were founded in the 1930s. So Prora would have been like Pontin’s with propaganda pumped into you at every turn. The complex had another purpose, as stipulated personally by Adolf Hitler, with the possibility of it being converted into a military field hospital in time of war.
And that’s exactly what Hitler started when he invaded Poland on September 1st 1939. Most of the accommodation blocks had been completed, but not furnished, and the concert hall and swimming pools hadn’t been started. So not one of the millions of ideologically permissible master race seaside holidays was ever taken.
The Prora complex was used to house refugees who had lost their homes (including many from Hamburg in 1943 after the destruction caused by the Allied Operation Gomorrah bombing raids). The Soviets then occupied one of the blocks, and two of the blocks were demolished in the late 1940s. The GDR Army (Nationale Volksarmee) later occupied part of the site, but shortly after the 1990 reunification it was abandoned.
Much of the site has been completely renovated since then. Now you can stay at the ‘world’s longest youth hostel’, spend time on a beautiful Baltic beach and visit the limited exhibition in the Prora Documentation Centre. They really could do with putting in some English captions, but there is a film in German with English subtitles.
And if you want to stay in an (albeit restored) piece of fascist history, you can stay at the more upmarket Dormero Strandhotel Rugen. It might not look like it’s from that period, but take one look at the colossal length of the building and you’ll see that it is.
Heydrich Assassination Site, Prague
The site of the assassination of one of the most brutal Nazis of all
The assassination of Reinhard Heydrich was one of the most audacious acts of rebellion in World War Two. Known as the Butcher of Prague, the acting Reichsprotektor (he did not do much protecting) of Bohemia and Moravia was one of the main architects of the ‘Final Solution’ of what the Nazis called the ‘Jewish question’ in Europe. The term for the programme of mass murder of Europe’s Jews, which had moved on to killing hundreds or thousands at a time in gas chambers, was named Operation Reinhard after him.
So, perhaps unsurprisingly, in 1941 Czech resistance members and their British allies decided to assassinate Heydrich. It was codenamed Operation Anthropoid.
After extensive reconnaissance and surveillance of Heydrich’s journey to his office in Prague Castle, the site of the attempt was chosen where a slip road joined the main Prague ring road (then called V Holešovičkach), close to the Bulovka hospital in the suburb of Libeň.
The two assassins, Jozef Gabčik and Jan Kubiš planned their attempt for May 27th 1942. Heydrich was due to take up a new post terrorising occupied France, and was due to meet Hitler in Berlin later that day. However, Gabčik’s gun jammed, and in desperation Kubiš threw an improvised bomb which hit the rear of the car. Heydrich survived the initial explosion, and was taken to Bulovka Hospital for treatment.
He took a turn for the worse almost a week later, dying of sepsis at the age of 38. Severe reprisals would follow, which I describe in the following section.
The Heydrich assassination site underwent considerable change in the early 2020s. The murals that were originally in the subway tunnels below the tram station have now been painted over, and replaced by much larger murals along the roadside beyond the tram stop. The original monument remains, three figures astride a tower facing the Prague ring road.
Getting there: Trams 3 or 10 to Vychovatelna, then a short walk down the hill to the junction with Pražský okruh.
Tours: This is a rare tour including the Heydrich assassination site and Lidice as well as the National Heydrich Memorial in the Orthodox Cathedral.
See Also: 15 Fascinating Prague World War 2 Sites
Lidice, Czech Republic
Site of reprisal massacre after assassination of Reinhard Heydrich
After the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazis set about exacting revenge. love The village of Lidice, northwest of Prague near the town of Kladno, was not connected with the assassination plot in any way. However, seemingly looking for the slightest pretext, an intercepted letter from one lover to another mentioned passing on greetings to someone from the village.
On the evening of 9th June 1942, five days after Heydrich’s death, troops were sent to the village, surrounding it. The next morning, men and boys over the age of 15 were rounded up and over the ensuing hours 173 were shot by firing squad.
The women and children of the village were taken to Kladno, from where the women were sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp north of Berlin. A few children were considered to have sufficient Aryan features to be spared, but 82 of 105 were sent to the death camp at Chełmno nad Nerem, between Łódź and Poznań, where they were murdered in gas vans.
The Nazis carried out a similar atrocity in the village of Ležaky, 50 miles east of Prague in the Pardubice region.
The Nazis razed the village to the ground, only missing two items, the church door and the village fire engine. A new village was built close by, but the original site of Lidice is now a memorial. It includes a Museum, a beautiful Rose Garden and a sculpture of the 82 children who were murdered. The latter is the work of Marie Uchytilova, who sadly died in 1989, before all of the figures were cast in bronze.
Getting there: Regular 300 buses run to Lidice Pamatnik from Nádraží Veleslavín bus station, which is just up the stairs from the Prague Metro (line A) station of the same name.
Tours: This excellent small tour visits Lidice, the Heydrich Assassination Site and several other Prague World War 2 sites.
Oradour-sur-Glane, Near Limoges, France
French village destroyed by the Nazis as ‘collective punishment’ by the SS
Apart from Llandaff Cathedral, the first European World War 2 site that I visited was the ’martyr village’ of Oradour-sur-Glane on a school exchange trip in 1984. At that young age (13) it was overwhelming to see a village frozen in time like this, with objects that had been left on the ground in the same place for 40 years (now over 80).
The Oradour-sur-Glane massacre took place on 10th June 1944, four days after the Normandy D-Day landings. A senior Nazi officer had been captured and later executed by the Resistance in the Limousin area, and the Nazis decided on a ‘collective punishment’ mass murder, like Lidice and Kandanos. Accounts of the choice of Oradour-sur-Glane vary. SS officer Adolf Diekmann ordered the massacre, although it’s not certain whether it was a case of mistaken identity (a village with a similar name was known for Resistance activity, whereas Oradour-sur-Glane wasn’t), or whether it was chosen at random simply to set an example and terrify locals into compliance.
The Nazis entered the village in the afternoon, rounding up the men and boys, forced into buildings, doused in petrol and then set on fire. The women and children of the village were forced into a church, which was also set on fire – anyone who escaped was machine-gunned to death.
In all, 642 people were murdered that day, and only six survived to bear witness to what the Nazis perpetrated. The last survivor passed away in 2023, aged 97. Diekmann was due to be court-martialled for his actions, but was never brought to trial, as he was killed on 29th June 1944 in Normandy.
Getting there: The 192 Limoges to Oradour bus runs three times a day, and the ruins of the village are free to explore, but there is no explanatory signage. The Memory centre in the village is currently closed for refurbishment, and due to reopen in 2027.
Otto Weidt Blind Workshop Museum, Berlin
One of the most inspiring acts of bravery and dedication during the Holocaust
This tiny museum in Berlin is one of few inspiring sites among these off the beaten track World War 2 sites in Europe. Just around the corner from the Hackescher Markt and a few steps from the Berlin Anne Frank Centre, this museum is housed in a workshop run by a former anarchist who made brushes and brooms for the Wehrmacht (German Army), employing up to 30 staff, many of whom were blind or deaf Jews in hiding.
For a while he was able to continue to operate as his business was considered to be contributing to the war effort. A false wardrobe in one of the rooms leads you into the windowless hiding place where Weidt concealed his Jewish staff if Nazi officials visited. He was able to delay the deportation of most of his staff until 1943, when the Nazi net eventually closed in on them.
However, Weidt did save three of his Jewish staff. One of them, Alice Licht, went to Terezin (also known as the Theresienstadt Ghetto) and he sent over 100 food parcels to her and her parents. She was later sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau, but thanks to a postcard she managed to send he was able to travel there and help her. She was able to move to a labour camp and eventually back to Berlin, where Weidt and his wife Else took her in.
Otto Weidt died two years later in 1947, and the workshop operated until 1952, when the East German state closed it down. In 1971, he was posthumously recognised as one of the Righteous Among The Nations at Yad Vashem. As the old Jewish saying (quoted in Schindler’s List) goes, ‘He who saves one person saves the world in time.’
Getting there: S-Bahn S3, S5, S7, S9 to Hackescher Markt, then a short walk to 39 Rosenthaler Strasse. The Workshop Museum is in the courtyard beyond the archway, on the left.
The Scheldt Battlefield, Vlissingen and Southern Netherlands
Largely unknown but strategically vital battle site straddling the Netherlands and Belgium
By the autumn of 1944, the Allied invasion of western Europe had progressed from the D-Day beaches of Normandy to the Dutch border, but its progress was imperilled. Without a viable supply route, troops wouldn’t be able to continue their advance much longer. It was an absolute strategic necessity to open a supply route into western Europe, and the best way of doing so would be via the port of Antwerp and the Scheldt estuary shared between Belgium and the Netherlands.
The autumn 1944 phase of the Second World War is best known for Operation Market Garden, and the Allied failure to capture the bridge over the Rhine at Arnhem, which was fought just before the Battle of the Scheldt. My attention was drawn to the Scheldt one evening when I was browsing Netflix, and chanced upon The Forgotten Battle, a 2020 Dutch film which tells part of its story. I watched it the following night – I strongly recommend it – and delved further into the fascinating story.
The Battle of the Scheldt was fought over a wide area either side of the estuary, mostly in the Dutch province of Zeeland. Much of the terrain consists of marshy coastal islands, and the battlefield area is extensive, spreading across the border to Belgium. The flat, low-lying terrain is also very difficult to capture – the Dnieper estuary south of Kherson in Ukraine is a similar contemporary example. Much of the burden of the battle fell on the Canadian Army, led by Lt-General Guy Simonds, with help from Polish and British Allies.
It took almost two months to clear German forces from the area, with the area north of Antwerp captured first. They held out for five weeks in the Walcheren Peninsula until early November , which includes the important port of Vlissingen (which is sometimes still called Flushing in English).
Battlefield sites to visit include the Canadian War Cemeteries at Bergen op Zoom and Adegem, the Uncle Beach memorial at Vlissingen, and German bunker fortifications in Koudekerke and Groede.
I particularly recommend the Polderhuis Museum in Westkapelle, on Walcheren Island, where there is a Memorial to the Battle. As well as telling the story of the Battle of the Scheldt, it also documents life on the frontline holding back the sea from the low-lying land for over 700 years.
Risiera di San Sabba, Trieste, Italy
The largest Nazi holding camp in Italy, from which Jews and other prisoners were sent to the gas chambers
This former rice processing mill in Trieste is one of the most important World War 2 sites in Italy. It was taken over by Nazi forces in 1943, having initially been a camp for Italian prisoners of war, and turned into a concentration camp in all but name. Its staff included Odilo Globocnik, Christian Wirth and Franz Stangl, all of whom were involved in the Operation Reinhard death camps in eastern Poland and Aktion T4 euthanasia centres before that. Between them, these three psychopaths were responsible for well over a million deaths.
The Risiera di San Sabba served as a detention centre for Italian political prisoners and Yugoslav partisans, and a transit camp for Jews from the region who were deported, mostly to their deaths in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The rice mill was converted into a four-storey prison, and one of the rooms was repurposed as a crematorium. It’s estimated that between 3,000 and 5,000 inmates were killed at San Sabba, and a further 8,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Bethnal Green Disaster Memorial, London
Poignant memorial to a hushed-up London wartime disaster
London’s Tube stations were regularly used by the city’s population as air raid shelters during the Second World War. At the sound of an air raid siren, locals would flock to the Underground stations where they would wait out the attack, hoping they would still have homes to return to once the all-clear had sounded.
On the evening of March 3rd 1943, a retaliatory attack on London had been anticipated following an Allied air raid on Berlin. A siren sounded, warning of a possible imminent raid, but it was a false alarm, with no Luftwaffe aircraft in the sky that evening.
Locals made their way to the Bethnal Green Tube station entrance, which had been blacked out in anticipation of a raid. In an agonising twist of fate, as the darkened staircase was crowded with people, gunfire was heard close by. It was from a British test firing exercise half a mile away in Victoria Park. Everyone feared the worst, a Luftwaffe attack, and panicked.
A crush developed, and in the darkness 173 people died, 62 of them children. Many of them suffocated. However, news of the disaster – one of the worst in British history – was suppressed on the orders of Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The story would have devastated the British public and, wary of people being demoralised by this, it was kept quiet until after the War.
The tragedy is now marked by the Stairway to Heaven installation, an inverted staircase with the surnames of the victims on each side.
See Also: 12 Best World War 2 Sites in London To Visit
Coventry Cathedral, England
Medieval Cathedral destroyed by bombing, with a new Cathedral next door, potent symbols of reconciliation
The industrial West Midlands city of Coventry – home to a vital ordnance works – was one of the Luftwaffe’s prime targets in Britain. It was targeted many times during the Second World War, and the most devastating raid took place on the night of 14-15 November 1940, when the Luftwaffe launched Operation Moonlight Sonata, intending to wipe out Coventry’s factories and industry – and whatever else got in the way.
The bombing raid was planned to cause maximum destruction. An initial group of aircraft set off marker flares, and the follow-up bombers dropped their heavy bombs, designed to severely damage roofs and buildings. Incendiary bombs would also be dropped, hitting locations already bombed and unprotected, with the intention of instigating a firestorm. It was a tactic repeated by both sides throughout the War, and the British retaliated in kind the following month with a similar raid on the German city of Mannheim.
By the morning of 15th November, much of the city centre had been destroyed, including St Michael’s Cathedral. The medieval parish church was raised to cathedral status in 1918, but after the raid was reduced to a smoking shell, with only its tower and spire intact. The destroyed Cathedral has been kept as it was, with a simple inscription – Father Forgive – behind the former high altar.
Rather than rebuild St Michael’s, it was decided to build a new Cathedral in Coventry, on a site adjacent to St Michael’s. The commission to design it was awarded to Basil Spence, and the new Cathedral was built within a decade, completed and consecrated in 1962.
It’s one of the most remarkable modern churches in Europe, with some superb works of art. These include the bronze figures of St Michael Slaying The Devil by Jacob Epstein (see also Llandaff Cathedral below), the fine Christ in Glory tapestry by Graham Sutherland behind the high altar, and the striking Baptistery window, the work of John Piper and Patrick Reyntiens.
The New Cathedral is open daily from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm except Sundays, when you can visit between 12.00 and 3.30 pm. Entrance is free but donations are requested.
Tours: This Cathedral Quarter guided walk explores Coventry’s old and new Cathedrals – and visits the site of the lost original, St Mary’s.
See Also: 50 Famous Landmarks in England
Frauenkirche, Dresden, Germany
Rebuilt Baroque church a ‘phoenix from the ashes’ tale, the final great Dresden monument to be rebuilt after the destruction of 1945
In 2005 the rebuilding of the Frauenkirche Dresden was finally completed, sixty years after the church and city were destroyed in a firestorm following an intensive Allied bombing raid. It was considered the final element of the post-war restoration of Dresden, although some Dresden landmarks, including the nearby Sophienkirche, were never rebuilt.
The domed Protestant Baroque church is one of the most beautiful churches in Europe. It was the 18th-century masterpiece of local architect Georg Bähr, with its soaring bell-shaped dome (Koppel) rising almost 300 feet (91 metres). As the church isn’t long in any direction, the height of the dome is accentuated, particularly inside. When you stand in the aisle of the nave, under the dome, craning your neck upwards it feels like you’re looking up to the heavens.
This guided tour of the Frauenkirche gives you exclusive access to the galleries inside the church, and you can also climb to the top of the dome and outside to the viewing gallery. The views of the city from there are unforgettable.
The Frauenkirche is a symbol of reconciliation, and the church and city maintain strong links with Coventry and its Cathedral to this day.
Warsaw Zoo, Poland
The villa and Zoo where many Jews were hidden during World War Two
Warsaw Zoo (Zoo Warszawa) is one of the biggest zoos in Central Europe, housing around 12,000 animals from 500 or so species. It was opened in 1928, and after the sudden death of the original director, the Zoo was taken over by Jan Żabiński, who ran the Zoo until its enforced closure after the Nazi invasion in 1939.
The events that followed are documented in Diane Ackerman’s 2007 book The Zookeeper’s Wife, and the 2017 movie of the same name, which portrays events with a slightly different slant. The villa, built in 1931, where Żabiński, his wife Antonina and son Ryszard lived until 1951. Remarkably they managed to save around 300 Jews from what would have been certain death in the gas chambers of Treblinka.
Many of the animals had been moved from the Zoo by the time the Nazis reached Warsaw, so they hid some of the rescued Jews in the vacated enclosures and cages, and sometimes in the villa.
Jan was often away from the Zoo, busy as a member of the underground Armia Krajowa (Home Army), and also rescuing Jews from the Ghetto. He also fought during the brave but doomed Warsaw Uprising of August and September 1944. He was shot and injured, and imprisoned afterwards before managing to escape.
Antonina held the home part of the operation together, looking after people on a day-to-day basis. She would often play the grand piano in the villa, and each of the pieces she played had a different meaning and message. If she played Jacques Offenbach’s Pars pour la Crète it meant that there was danger, that everyone should silently proceed to their hiding places at once.
The villa is open for guided tours only. The rooms have been kept as closely as possible to their 1940s appearance, and you are also taken to the cellar where fugitive Jews hid. There are open tours (no reservations accepted) on the first Sunday of the month at 11.00 am and 1.00 pm. Otherwise you can make arrangements as outlined on the Warsaw Zoo Villa tour page.
Torgau Elbe Memorials, Saxony, Germany
Memorials at the site where the US Army and Red Army met in April 1945
The northern town of Saxony is one of the most intriguing places to visit on the river Elbe. It has three main claims to renown – its superb Renaissance castle, Schloss Hartenfels, and the Castle Chapel within which was the first purpose-built Protestant place of worship. It was also where the Soviet Red Army and US Army converged on 25th April 1945 as Nazi Germany teetered on the brink of total collapse.
The eventual meeting between the two commanders, Robertson and Silvashko, was convivial, although a mishap was narrowly avoided thanks to a Soviet officer, who realised that the Americans didn’t have a green flare to fire in response to the Soviets’ red one.
Although the town was liberated by the Americans, Torgau became part of what soon became Communist East Germany. The Soviets built a memorial, designed by Avraham Miletzky, a few months after the historic meeting of the armies, and the more recent, smaller Spirit of the Elbe Memorial a ten-minute walk away across the river.
Poignantly, the Spirit of the Elbe memorial mentions ‘peoples of all nations resolving their differences without war…working together for the mutual benefit of all people.’ Clearly a lot of people did not get the memo….
See Also: Things To Do In Torgau, Germany
Kandanos, Crete, Greece
One of numerous Nazi massacre sites across Crete and Greece
I only learned the story of Kandanos by chance. While travelling from Paleochora, on the south Crete coast, to the lovely city of Chania, our bus stopped at traffic lights due to roadworks. We happened to be right next to a large memorial in German and Greek. I can read Greek but understand German better, so, intrigued, I read on. What I learned shocked me, a reminder that war can touch even the remotest places, including this quiet corner of southwestern Crete.
In Crete, as most places they occupied, the Nazis committed massacres of innocent civilians as retribution for acts of resistance against them, especially later in the War under the brutal ‘Butcher of Crete’, Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller.
In May 1941, having captured Chania on the northwest coast of the island, the Nazis prioritised taking the small town of Paleochora, 50 miles southwest on the south coast. They feared a possible Allied landing there, and headed there along the only road between the two towns, which passes through the rugged mountain gorge at Kandanos. It was there that the Germans were ambushed by locals, who killed 25 German soldiers, holding up their advance for two days. The Nazis, predictably, planned brutal reprisals.
General Kurt Student ordered the Nazi response which was carried out on 3rd June 1941. They murdered 180 people, razed every building in the village to the ground, and killed all the livestock there. They put up signs in the village, including one stating that the village had been destroyed in response to the killing of 25 German soldiers.
The village was rebuilt after the Second World War, but there’s not a great deal to see beyond the war memorial pictured, although our friend in Paleochora – who runs a restaurant herself – recommends the To Mesostrato taverna on the main road through Kandanos.
The Nazis carried out numerous other massacres in Crete during their occupation of the island. These include the murder of 25 villagers in Anogia (in central Crete, close to the Minoan site at Zominthos), and the Viannos massacres, in which around 500 were murdered.
Tours: This World War 2 tour from Chania explores the German landing sites west of Chania, war cemeteries and the Platanias war shelter.
And this Battle of Crete tour from Chania takes you to the Allied War Cemetery at Souda, the German War Cemetery at Maleme and a hidden German bunker network.
Italian Chapel, Lamb Holm, Orkney, Scotland
Beautiful chapel built by Italian prisoners of war
It’s highly unlikely that Italian troops heading for the furnace of battle in North Africa in 1941 would have ever imagined themselves ending up in far-flung islands off the north coast of Scotland. But over a thousand of them, once captured, were taken to Orkney, where they were assigned to work on barriers to protect Scapa Flow.
This natural harbour, with Orkney Mainland to the north and several other islands to the south, was the main British naval base during both World Wars. The barriers were required to safeguard British shipping, a task made much more urgent following the sinking of HMS Royal Oak by a German U-Boat, with the loss of 834 British lives.
The A961 road which runs from Mainland to Lamb Holm and onto Glimps Holm and Burray forms part of the barriers constructed by the Italian POWs. The servicemen requested permission to build a chapel, which was granted, and they started with two prefabricated Nissen huts which they joined together.
The Italians made use of whatever materials were available to them, which included a motor vehicle exhaust pipe encased in concrete to become the shaft of the baptismal font. And there was one greatly talented artist in their midst – Domenico Chiocchetti, from Moena in Trentino-Alto-Adige – who was responsible for the superb frescoes inside the church.
The Chapel is now one of the most popular places to visit in Orkney, and is open every day except Christmas and New Year’s Days. Winter opening hours are short – 10.00 am to 1.00 pm. However, the rest of the year it’s open as long as six to eight hours a day, opening between 9.00 and 10.00 am and closing between 4.00 pm and 5.30 pm.
Getting there: The X1 bus from Kirkwall runs there every two hours.
Llandaff Cathedral, Cardiff, Wales
Welsh Cathedral which sustained the second most bombing damage after Coventry
In my mid-twenties, I befriended the father of a friend my own age, partly through an interest he shared but his son didn’t – local history. And one of his areas of interest was what he called ‘bomb patches’ around my home city, Cardiff, which was attacked by the Luftwaffe numerous times during the Second World War.
After a few walks with him I could soon identify a ‘bomb patch’ myself. If I ever came across a few ‘new build’ houses in the middle of one of the long terraced streets, this was a telltale sign. A few homes had been blown up, the gap replaced years later by a different building. Over a chat in the pub one afternoon, I realised that there was one highly significant Cardiff ‘bomb patch’ he had never visited, so I accompanied him there the following weekend.
Llandaff Cathedral is one of the finest churches in Wales, founded fifteen centuries ago and one of the best places in the UK to see the different stages of medieval architecture – and modern. On January 2nd 1941, a parachute mine dropped by a Luftwaffe aircraft landed close to the south side of the Cathedral, destroying the nave roof, south aisle and adjacent chapter house. The top of the Prichard Spire was also badly damaged and had to be removed.
After the War, much of the church was restored to its previous state, but with some radical new additions. The most notable of these is Sir Jacob Epstein’s Majestas, an aluminium figure of Christ in Majesty on an organ case mounted on a parabolic arch. It has always divided opinion, and since seeing it for the first time in 1982 I’ve always considered it a magnificent work. A new chapel was also added on the north side of the church, as well as a beautiful stained-glass window designed by John Piper above a Norman arch 800 years older.
Herzogenbusch Concentration Camp, Vught, Netherlands
The best-preserved of the three Dutch transit camps from which Jews and others were sent to the death camps
This transit camp, near the city of s’-Hertogenbosch (also known as Den Bosch), was one of three transit camps in the Netherlands used by the Nazis to hold Jews, Sinit, Roma, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses and others prior to their deportation, mostly to their death camps in Poland.
Westerbork and Amersfoort had already been in operation for over a year before the Nazis decided to build an additional camp at Vught. Around 31,000 people were held there before being deported, mostly to Auschwitz-Birkenau and Sobibor, where the vast majority were murdered on arrival. 749 prisoners also died at Vught, either through execution or ill health brought on by the appalling conditions in which they lived.
The Vught camp was the scene of the Bunker Tragedy, when in January 1944 the Nazis forced 74 female prisoners to stand in a cell just 9 square metres in size. Ten of them suffocated during the 14 hours they were confined there. News of this cruel murder got out, with the eventual result that the commandant who had ordered it was sent to the Eastern front, where he met his end a year later.
Vught is the best-preserved of the three Dutch transit camps, and is now a National Monument. It’s less than an hour by train from Amsterdam to Den Bosch, and a further five minutes’ journey with a change of train to Vught.
You can also book your Vught concentration camp ticket here – this includes an audio guide.
Island Farm Former POW Camp, Bridgend, Wales
Welsh prisoner of war camp, scene of the Nazis’ ‘Great Escape’ attempt
This small camp on the outskirts of the town of Bridgend was originally built to accommodate female workers at an armaments factory in the town. However, the ladies found the conditions too grim, preferring a long commute instead. In late 1943, the vacant site was used to house US servicemen who were secretly preparing for the eventual Allied landings in Normandy the following year.
Following the 1944 Allied invasion of Europe, the problem of where to house German prisoners of war arose. Island Farm was one site that would be repurposed as a POW camp. Conditions were considered too luxurious for rank-and-file Wehrmacht troops, so captured officers were to be held there instead.
The site was converted with, among other adjustments, the addition of barbed-wire fences. The prisoners included Field Marshals Gerd von Rundstedt, who had led the brief, victorious campaign against France in 1940, and Erich von Manstein, who led the capture of Crimea during Operation Barbarossa on the Eastern Front.
Island Farm must have been what some of us Brits would term a ‘cushy number’, as within two months of opening two tunnels had been dug out of the camp. Bearing in mind the enormous wealth of military know-how, Island farm wasn’t going to hold so many senior officers for long. They made ingenious use of such items as condensed milk tins – to make ventilation pipes for the tunnels.
70 officers made their move on March 10th 1945, scattering across the south of the UK. The vast majority were eventually recaptured, but one author suggests that three were never caught by the British authorities, eventually making their way back to continental Europe.
The Island Farm site is now open on two weekends a year, with numbers limited. One of the camp buildings – Hut 9, pictured above – survives. Follow this link to the Island Farm Facebook group, which organises the open weekends and sells tickets.
Museum Fotoatelier Seidel, Český Krumlov, Czech Republic
Fascinating museum of small-town Bohemia through the prism of a local photographer’s business – all lost forever after World War Two
This absorbing museum in Český Krumlov isn’t a World War Two museum as such, rather a snapshot of a life, and centuries of history, upended and destroyed by the Nazis, World War Two and its tragic aftermath.
Prior to World War Two, the town of Český Krumlov was more widely known as Böhmisch Krumau, and had been a predominantly German-speaking town for centuries. Josef Seidel was the town’s leading portrait photographer, with a nice sideline in postcard views of his hometown which just happens to be one of the most beautiful small towns in Europe.
Museum Fotoatelier Seidel is also one of the best small museums in Europe. Parts of the house are restored portrait studios, where locals would dress up (you can see many of the costumes they wore) for their special portrait sessions. The waiting rooms are also set out exactly as they were in the 1930s.
Český Krumlov was part of the German-speaking Sudetenland area annexed by Hitler under the terms of the infamous 1938 Munich Agreement with British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. So the town wasn’t involved in the tumultuous conflict that raged around much of the rest of the continent. Being a backwater for a while meant it was preserved much as it had been for centuries.
Josef Seidel died in 1935, and the business was taken over by his son František, who continued to run it until 1949. It was then forcibly closed down by the new Czechoslovak Communist government under Klement Gottwald. Germans (and Hungarians) were also expelled from the country by the Beneš decrees applied between 1946 and 1948, turning many German-speaking places into Czech-speaking areas almost overnight.
After the business was closed down, all of its props and paraphernalia were packed away, forgotten for fifty years until the rediscovery of this treasure trove in the late 1990s. Whether it’s photography or 20th-century history that fascinates you, this superb Museum is alone worth the trip from Prague.
See Also: 18 Best Things To Do In Český Krumlov
Off The Beaten Path World War 2 Sites In Europe – Final Thoughts
I hope that you’ve found this article of interest, and that you’ve made a few discoveries along the way.
Here is a selection of further articles related to World War Two that I’ve written on the site. Feel free to browse at your leisure:
16 Best World War 2 Sites In Germany To Visit
15 Best Berlin World War 2 Sites
Nuremberg Nazi Sites – seven sites including the infamous Nazi Party Rally Grounds
Prague World War 2 Sites – discover Prague’s Second World War locations
Heydrich Assassination Site Prague – where the ‘Butcher of Prague’ was attacked and eventually killed by the Czech Resistance
Visiting Auschwitz – Birkenau – Helpful Tips And What To Expect
Visiting Terezin Concentration Camp – complete guide to the infamous Theresienstadt Ghetto near Prague
12 Fascinating World War 2 Sites in London