Walcheren

In the latter days of World War II, Vlissingen was sacrificed as a price to pay for a free Europe. The city was in ruins. Its hinterland, Walcheren, was flooded as the result of Allied air raids to break the German defence. Walcheren was in a state of emergency. But this did not dissuade people after Liberation from rolling up their sleeves and getting to work to make their land dry and habitable again. Dikes were restored, the land desalinated and the polders pumped dry to regain arable land. But the great threat of the water is never far off. Zeeland will forever need to remain attentive to the omnipresent menace of the mighty water. Human hands must keep working to ensure that land triumphs over water.