The new plaque of a war monument at the John Frost Bridge in Arnhem has been vandalized. Previously, the original bronze plaque of the monument had already disappeared. “Disrespectful that people treat it this way,” the municipality says.
“Everyone knows that bridge is very important to the history of Arnhem,” Arnhem alderman Bob Roelofs tells NU.nl about the vandalism. “This affects us all.”
A passerby saw on Friday that the new plaque had been vandalized and was lying a little further on the bridge. It is still unclear exactly what happened, but according to Roelofs, the plaque must have been forcibly removed. “It was reasonably secure and otherwise you wouldn’t get it out. This was no gust of wind, but must have been a deliberate step.”
The commemorative plaque is now at the city office in Arnhem. It will “certainly return, but with plexiglass around it,” says Roelofs. The bronze plaque will also return to the memorial site, although the municipality still has to see how it will fill the space exactly. According to the alderman, it would in any case be “a nice combination” to place both plaques at the John Frost Bridge.
Original bronze plaque disappeared at the end of April
At the end of April, the original bronze plaque of the war monument disappeared. It had been there since 1978. The municipality of Arnhem suspects theft and filed a report at the time. Nothing has come of that to date, the alderman says.
A week later, the NPO program Even tot hier arranged a new plaque for the municipality. This new commemorative plaque consisted of a photo of British Lieutenant Colonel John Frost. That image was made up of photos of the hundreds of soldiers who fought alongside Frost during the Battle of Arnhem in 1944.
The John Frost Bridge is one of the most heavily contested places during the Second World War. With Operation Market Garden, the Allies wanted to seize bridges in the Netherlands to force a passage through the German defenses. But due to unexpectedly strong resistance, they failed to conquer the Arnhem bridge.