Maarten (11) comes along every week with his father and grandfather to help in the shed where the Maastricht Liberation Museum will soon open. He first came as a 9-year-old with his father and was immediately hooked. "I wanted to see what it was like here, looked around and really thought: wow!"

Maarten's grandfather Gerard was the first to join the club, followed by his father Rutger, so there are now three generations working every Wednesday night. "Grandpa also does all sorts of things. He helps build the museum and also restores the cars." "I'm only allowed to come along if I finish my homework. So I do that every Sunday, so I can definitely come on Wednesday nights."

Taking things apart and putting them back together 

When asked what Maarten likes most about this place, he laughs: "Helping everyone and that at some point a vehicle can actually drive, that it just does it! I also learn a lot about how to put things back together. I learn the most from Hindrik. He speaks English, but we still understand each other. He shows me step by step what to do and how it works. We put everything in bags with a card attached, so we can easily find it back later."

And Martin is very good at finding things. There is a whole system of boxes and containers where all the materials are stored. Someone only has to call out and Maarten is already flying off to get it.

Adventure with old army trucks

As well as tinkering with the vehicles and preparing the museum, the club also regularly goes on tours. Maarten says enthusiastically: "Once we took part in a big tour where there were thousands of people along the roadside. We were part of a long parade of old army vehicles and all these people waved at us. We also slept in a vehicle that night, which was a bit frightning, but mostly great fun."

Do things ever go wrong during a tour? "Yes, once when we were on tour, a hose on one of the big trucks broke. Then we had to get some kind of welding equipment nearby. Luckily Dave was there, he is a good welder. He fixed it with one of the other guys and we were off again."

Still working with 3 generations for a very long time 

Maarten hopes to do this with his father and grandfather for a long time to come. "This is so much fun. Sometimes we take a whole vehicle apart, put all the parts back together and clean everything. Then we put it back together and it runs again, which is great! And we eat cake every week, that's great too!" Both grandfather and father are very proud that Maarten is so keen to work with them on this project. "It's nice to work with your hands, I can see he's enjoying it and learning a lot." says father Rutger, looking proudly at his son.

Will you help us?

We could really use all the help we can get to make Bevrijdingsmuseum Maastricht a reality. Donations can come in various forms: material, sponsorship and money. You can read more about this on our donation page. Would you like to get involved or do you have a question?

Feel free to contact us!