1932 as the Dutch Ship Model Basin (NSMB). MARIN is a world-renowned institute in the field of maritime and hydrodynamic research. MARIN, today part of WUR, has the status of a major technological institute in the Netherlands. World War II The people, city, and institutions of Wageningen suffered greatly during World War II. Yet, the town is famous for its role at the end of the war. Wageningen was evacuated on May 10, 1940, as Nazi Germany invaded the country. Shortly afterwards, the central part of Wageningen was destroyed by artillery fire. Later the same month, under German occupation, residents began to clear the debris and rebuild the town center. On November 22, 1940, all Jewish staff of the Landbouwhogeschool were suspended from employment; a little over three months later, on March 1, 1941, they were forced to resign. As of October 1, 1941, Wageningen had about 15,000 residents, including about 34 Dutch Jews and about 200 Jewish refugees. By 1942, most Jews, residents and refugees alike, had been deported to meet their fate at the Sobibor and Auschwitz death camps. On May 20, 1944, the German SS carried out a wave of arrests in Wageningen of local citizens involved in the Dutch Resistance. Among those arrested were sisters, Eltien and Neeltje Krijthe, accused of hiding an illegal radio transmitter. Eltien died at Ravensbrück in 1945. Under heavy military pressure, on April 7, 1945, retreating German forces blew up the town's church towers. Ten days later, on April 17, 1945, Wageningen was liberated from the Nazis by Allied forces. On May 4, 1945, after almost five years of German occupation, at a farm in the Nude district, on the west side of Wageningen, I Canadian Corps commander Lieutenant-General Charles Foulkes negotiated with Oberbefehlshaber Niederlande supreme commander Generaloberst Johannes Blaskowitz regarding the way the German soldiers were obliged to act after the Nazi capitulation. On May 5, the two commanders finalized the capitulation agreement at the Hotel de Wereld, near the center of the city (now celebrated every May 5 as Netherlands' Liberation Day national holiday). The capitulation document was signed the next day (no typewriter had been available the prior day) in the auditorium of Rijks Landbouw Hoogeschool, located next door to Hotel de Wereld. The agreement, known as the Dutch Capitulation Act, can be regarded as an elaboration of the total capitulation of the German armed forces for northwest