The German occupation built a command centre consisting of 13 bunkers in the New Scheveningen woods in 1943. The complex’s officers, lead by SS-Oberführer Erwin Tzschoppe, were tasked with the military defence of the Stützpunktgruppe Scheveningen. Whenever threatened by enemy forces, they could coordinate manoeuvres from the type 608 command bunker and surrounding villas at this location. Almost all the bunkers in the Scheveningen complex are still intact and the Atlantic Wall Museum Scheveningen Foundation has reopened and authentically refurnished the command bunker, the barracks bunker and the toilet bunker.
The command bunker was especially fortified, with walls of 3 metres thick reinforced concrete. The bunker today is equipped much as it was originally, giving visitors a unique and tangible experience of the past. There are also original historic German, British, Canadian and American military artefacts on show.
In the barracks bunker, a type 622 (Doppelgruppenunterstand), there is a ‘time capsule’: one of the two living quarters is furnished solely with unrestored objects, allowing the visitor to experience the space as if untouched since the war. In reality, most of the Dutch bunkers were looted after the war and all their valuables removed. The second living quarters have been made into an exhibition space containing photographs, art and historical artefacts.
