For Freedom Museum
Opening hours
Open daily from the Easter holidays to mid-November from 10 am to 5 pm.
Open from mid-November to the Easter holidays on weekends and school holidays from 10 am to 5 pm.
Prices
Adults : € 14
Children up to 6 years: free
Children 7 - 12 years: € 8 (including audio guide)
Teachers : € 10
Groups (15 or more persons) : € 10 per person
CAFETARIA
Cafeteria with sunny terrace.
Everyone is welcome in our attractively furnished museum cafeteria, even if the museum can not be visited.
In addition, the cafeteria is ideally located as a stopping place for cyclists who cross the idyllic village of Ramskapelle.
Closed on Christmas and New Year's Day.
The Story
The For Freedom Museum shows the bleak times of the Second World War in a dazzling, realistic way. No single inhabitant of the Zwin region and western Zeeland Flanders was spared hardship and repression between 1940 and 1944. This black period in our history forms the main theme of the museum.
Unique settings
True-to-life dioramas (goggle-boxes) immerse you in the regional history from 10 May 1940 to 3 November 1944, the day that the thundering guns finally grew silent in the Zwin region.
The collection
The museum houses three impressive collections. Patrick Tierssoone and Freddy Jones, two old school friends with a passion for history, make available their unique collections of original vehicles and uniforms. The Belgian Aviation History Association (Bahaat), a recognised association of aviation archaeologists, is the third partner with an imposing exhibition of excavated aircraft remains.
The building
The former local school of Ramskapelle with its town hall dating from 1876 was restored between 2005 and 2007. The layout and structure of the various scenes was entrusted to the artist Pierre Verbreyt, an authority in museum outfitting. He can already add fitting out two museums in Normandy to his record of achievements.
The town council of Knokke-Heist, the European government, the province of West Flanders, Tourism West Flanders, journalist Paul Jambers and the local population of Ramskapelle all pulled their weight in setting up the museum. This is how the former local school developed as the location for this quite extraordinary project.
BROTHERS
Brothers Danny and Freddy Jones are the sons of the late Dennis Jones, a British Normandy veteran from Crewe, Cheshire (UK), who married a girl from Knokke-Heist in 1947. They had the history of the Second World War spoon-fed to them from very young. The military uniform that their father wore at his wedding was therefore the very first uniform in their collection.
FIGURES
Each display figure in the museum has a personal story. Many Canadian families donated the uniforms of their much-loved spouse or father to the project. ‘Send it to Belgium, to Fred Jones, one day he’s going to start a museum, to tell our story, why we came, why we bled and sacrificed our young lives!’ These were the words of many Canadian veterans who helped create the collection.
MESSAGE
The sorrowful phase from our local past must be passed on to our children and grandchildren, in the hope that such acts of war do not recur. Young people must know that freedom has a price. A price that our forebears paid in hard currency. We must cherish freedom. This important message of peace and tolerance is given daily in the For Freedom Museum.
