The Foundation

The LRE Foundation is a growing international, inclusive network that connects people and organisations dedicated to preserving and valorising the tangible and intangible cultural heritage related to World War II, its memory and meaning. The organisation’s main objective is to make this history relevant and accessible, especially for the younger generations.

Mission and History

The LRE Foundation has its roots as a regional project in the Arnhem-Nijmegen region. In 2008, three of the area’s museums – the Freedom Museum in Groesbeek, the Airborne Museum “Hartenstein” in Oosterbeek and the War Museum in Overloon – joined forces with Tourism Veluwe Arnhem Nijmegen (TVAN) to raise awareness of local World War II history by telling its stories and promoting its remembrance sites by creating a “liberation route”. Following the 2011 establishment of a Dutch organisation (Stichting/Foundation), an office was opened in the Netherlands with fulltime staff in 2013 dedicated to expanding the network. A second office opened in 2014 in Brussels to focus on the international expansion.

Apart from the international organisation based in Belgium and the Netherlands, new national branch organisations have been established in Italy (2019), France (2021), the United Kingdom (2021) and Germany (2022).

The LRE Foundation promotes a multi-perspective understanding of the history of World War II. As each country had a different wartime experience, it is our goal to present each perspective in relation to each other.

The board and governance

An International Supervisory Board governs LRE Foundation, while an Historical Advisory Board, comprised of leading historians, works to define the organisation’s historical scope, content, and research.

Since 2012, Mr. Martin Schulz, Member of the German Bundestag and former President of the European Parliament, has served as the patron.

Strategic Partners

The LRE Foundation has been supported by the National Fund for Peace, Freedom and Veteran Care (vfonds) in the Netherlands since 2012, by the European Union since 2013, and by the German Federal Foreign Office since 2020, as well as memberships (from museums, tourism boards, associations, local/regional governments etc.) throughout Europe and North America.

Liberation Route Europe, one of the initiatives of the LRE Foundation, is a certified Cultural Route of the Council of Europe since 2019.