This article originally appeared on VICE Netherlands.Sonnemans is a small, picturesque bakery in Haamstede, Netherlands, where you can buy a fresh loaf of bread and also look at some original World War II helmets. That combination is not that surprising when you consider that the bakery's owner, Mathieu Sonnemans, is a baker as well as an avid collector of Nazi-related items from WWII.The stuff Sonnemans collects and displays in his bakery mostly has to do with the Atlantic Wall—a coastal defense structure built by the Nazis. The Atlantic Wall ran along the coast of continental Europe and Scandinavia, and part of it was located in Burgh-Haamstede—the village where you'll find Sonnemans's bakery. Sonnemans dug up some of the items himself, in and around the bunkers in the woods and dunes of Burgh-Haamstede. The rest of his pieces found their way to him through word of mouth.
Advertisement
Sonnemans isn't a Nazi sympathizer—he's just fascinated with World War II. "When I was 13, my family moved to Zeeland, and shortly after that, I discovered the first bunker in the woods. That war has always intrigued me," he explained when I visited him. "The Atlantic Wall has had such a profound impact on Zeeland, as a local you simply can't escape it."