Maginot Line

The Maginot Line is the French counterpart of the Siegfried Line. After World War I, French ministers Painlevé and Maginot conceived the megalomaniacal idea of building an unbroken defensive belt between the North Sea and the Mediterranean. André Maginot was Minister of War from 1922 to 1929. As is known, the Maginot Line, despite its sixty fortifications and 400 bunkers, could not hold back the German army. This so-called impregnable system fell very quickly into the hands of the enemy. The advantage of this rapid takeover is that the Simserhof has remained in its original state. The short introductory film presents archival footage on the history of the Maginot Line. It is followed by a 30-minute tour covering 5 kilometers of galleries and/or a walk to the soldiers' barracks. A little less than nine hundred were once stationed on the 54 hectares of the Simserhof. On June 30, 1940, they laid down their arms. The wall thus proved its inefficiency. All kinds of special effects revive the bombings and the atmosphere that prevailed there during those days in June.

Lannoo