The Canada Museum in Adegem is one family's attempt to remember the role the Canadian Army played in liberating Belgium from the Nazis in WW II.
Two generations removed from the World War II battles that ended the Nazi occupation of northern Belgium, Alexandra Van Landschoot is nonetheless surrounded by the memories of that grim, but ultimately triumphant, time. Together with her father, Gilbert, Alexandra runs the Canada Museum in the town of Adegem, in the heart of Flanders, where the First Canadian Army in October 1944 launched the Battle of the Scheldt, and only a few kilometers from the famed Leopolds Canal, from where the Canadian 3rd Division began the drive to clear the Germans from the approaches to Antwerp.
The story of the Canada Museum begins in 1987, with the death of Gilbert Van Landschoot’s father. As he lay dying, the elder Van Landschoot made a startling confession, revealing a secret he had kept from his family for more than 40 years. Mr. Van Landschoot told his son that he had been a leading member of the Belgian resistance to the occupation, involved in communication and transportation sabotage, as well as helping downed Allied airmen escape the Germans. By 1944, the Gestapo was actively hunting Van Landschoot, and he told his son it was only the arrival of the Canadian troops that saved his life. He made his son promise to do something to pay tribute to and remember the liberators, to uphold the family code of honour: “If once someone has helped you,” he told his son, “you’ve got to do something in return.”
For the next few years, Gilbert Van Landschoot faithfully attended memorial services at the nearby Canadian War Cemetery. But he wanted to do more. Then, in 1995, he got the idea to open a museum. He approached several community leaders and townspeople, and artifacts of the war, long forgotten in cellars, attics and barns, started to pour in. Besides weapons, from pistols to rifles to heavy machine guns to mortars and flamethrowers, there is communication and medical supplies, kit bags and field equipment, maps, medals and even two Bren gun carriers (small armoured personnel vehicles). There are also uniforms and other personal gear representing all sides in the conflict. And in each case there is not one or two examples, but dozens.
All are arranged in life-sized dioramas, displayed with the use of more than 200 mannequins in a series of rooms that chronologically tell the story of the war, from the German occupation in 1940 through to V-E Day in 1945. One room is set aside to show a continuous loop of National Film Board documentaries of Canadian troops in combat in the Scheldt. The museum building itself, built by the Van Landschoots and their friends and family, features stained-glass windows depicting the Canadian and Belgian provincial Coats-of-Arms. The ceiling, a massive piece of oak weighing 300 tons, is reportedly the largest of its kind in Europe.
The Canada Museum in Adegem is unique in the world, perhaps the only museum on foreign soil completely visualized, constructed and maintained by the people of that country dedicated to a Canadian historical event. The Van Landschoots have never been to Canada, and their only connection to the country is their gratitude to the Canadian people.
One final example serves to illustrate the significance of what they have done. When they approached the Belgian government for help in funding the museum, they were told that despite the fact the Battle of the Scheldt was almost exclusively a Canadian operation, they could only receive public funding if they opened an “American-themed” museum, the government apparently believing only a museum that catered to American tourists could be financially successful. Of course, the Van Landschoots refused.
In the Van Landschoots’ own words: “We, the Belgian and Dutch people, should stand up and show our gratitude to the Canadian people.” Without a doubt, the Canada Museum in Adegem serves this purpose.
For more information on the Canada War Museum in Adegem, Belgium, visit Canada Museum
or email info@canadamuseum.be.
