War memorial employees broadcast station - Radio Kootwijk

On 11 May 1940, radio station Radio Kootwijk was taken by the Germans. They used the station's machinery to control their submarines. The messages were sent in code language (the Enigma code). Because British mathematician Alan Turing (1912-1954) managed to crack the Enigma code, the Germans' messages could be intercepted. This is one of the reasons why the Allies never bombed the Radio Kootwijk transmitter station and the impressive building survived the war.

The Germans did cause a lot of damage. When the Allies took Radio Kootwijk back, they blew up the long mast (Lange Gerrit) and smashed the machines. What remained of it was shipped to the Eastern Bloc and never recovered.

In the first years of the war, the Dutch workers continued to work as usual, under German supervision. In September 1944, the transmitting station became off-limits to the Dutch, and the Germans began transporting the materials to Germany. Sabotaging these operations was virtually impossible due to the Germans' strict surveillance. In their attempts to thwart the Germans and build alternative transmitters, four Dutch PTT employees were killed. In their honour, a monument has been erected on Radioweg. The monument consists of a female figure holding a torch. The text on the monument reads, "Thou art the one who lights a flame in which the future smiles." and the names of the four collaborators: J.D. (Jan) Suijling, G.A. (Gerrit) Meerhof, C.F. (Carl) Thomas and J. (Jaap) Stel.