Aviation and War museum  

The Georgian Uprising

The Second World War passed relatively peacefully on Texel. The island lay on the route of the Allies who were bombing major cities in Germany. Many a bomber was hit by the anti-aircraft guns from Texel, Vlieland or Den Helder and crashed on or near the island. Apart from these aerial fights, there was little evidence of war. This was until the night of 5 and 6 April 1945, when the Georgian soldiers fighting on the German side rebelled en masse. They cut the throats of almost all the Germans in their battalion. For a moment it seemed that Texel was liberated, but the very next morning shells were fired at Den Burg, after which there was fierce fighting for days on end between the constantly arriving German reinforcements and the ever-diminishing Georgian army. More than two weeks after the peace was signed, the fighting on Texel ended on 20 May when the Canadian liberators arrived on the island. This made Texel the last battlefield in Europe. Approximately 100 Texel people and 565 Georgians lost their lives in the battle.

A large number of these dead Georgians are buried in the Loladze Georgian cemetery on the Hoge Berg. The cemetery is freely accessible from sunrise to sunset.