The Railway Bridge and the IJssel Line

The first permanent river crossing at Zwolle was not the Oude IJssel Bridge (from 1930), but the slightly more southerly railway bridge that dates back to 1864. The bridges were crucial for the German occupiers. This was true for the three road bridges, at Kampen, Deventer, and Zwolle, but it also applied to the railway bridge. They were monitored almost permanently, both by German soldiers and by the Landwacht and officials from the Crisis Control Service. The Germans placed so much value on a strong defensive line along the IJssel that in the summer of 1944 they decided to reinforce this line with great urgency. 'Organisation Todt' was established; all available civilian labor was conscripted and deployed for building bridgeheads in Deventer and Zwolle and for digging positions along the entire eastern bank of the IJssel. As a result, only older men and schoolboys were able to move freely. The vital age groups were called upon to work in the German industry or to dig for the benefit of the German defensive line along the IJssel. Some could claim their indispensability on the farm, however many of them went into hiding. But the uncertainty remained, and many young men from the IJssel region were still rounded up and put to work as diggers. Additionally, many thousands of men from Twente and Apeldoorn were also rounded up in raids, put on trains, transported to Zwolle or Deventer, and there set to work with a shovel. In Zwolle, they often gathered on the eastern side of the Oude IJssel Bridge, near Venus (the current care center) or further along near the railway bridge. Thus, the Hunger Marches came to an end. On April 13, 1945, the IJssel Bridge and railway bridge were destroyed again, this time by the German army to make it difficult for the Allied troops to advance further. Zwolle was liberated on April 14. Wezep and Kamperveen followed a few days later.

IJsseldelta