Permanent exhibits of the museum recreate the atmosphere of the streets of Amsterdam during the German occupation of World War II.

The building bearing the Star of David and the name of Petrus Plancius (1550-1622), the Renaissance Amsterdam clergyman and geographer, was built in 1876 by the Jewish singing society Oefening Baart Kunst (practice makes perfect).

The Oefening Baart Kunst society kept the Plancius name on its building to underline its respect to the Amsterdam city traditions.

The focus of Verzetsmuseum is the German Occupation of the Netherlands from multiple individuals' perspectives in the Dutch resistance to Nazi rule, from the May 1940 invasion to liberation in May 1945.

The museum has published the catalogue of its permanent exhibition, which opened in 2022, The Netherlands during the Second World War in One Hundred Stories.