Camp Westerbork
Camp Westerbork was the largest German prison camp in the Netherlands.
Camp Westerbork was built in 1939 as Central Refugee Camp Westerbork. German-Jewish refugees were housed there from October 1939.[1] After the German occupation in May 1940, the camp remained in Dutch hands, but the regime became stricter under the leadership of the new director Jacques Schol.[2]
In 1942, the camp was expanded by the Nazis and from 1 July 1942 the camp officially functioned as a Polizeiliches Judendurchgangslager. Jewish people were gathered in the camp and then deported to concentration camps in Eastern Europe. Thus, Camp Westerbork became part of the extensive system of German concentration camps and functioned as an important transit point for the systematic murder of Jews from the Netherlands.[3]
On 8 August 1944, the eight people from the Secret Annex were also taken to Westerbork from Amsterdam. They stayed there for almost a month. On 3 September 1944, they were put on a transport to Auschwitz concentration camp.[4]
Of the 107,000 Jewish people deported from the Netherlands, only 5,000 returned alive.
Footnotes
- ^ Dick Houwaart, Westerbork. Het begon in 1933 ..., Den Haag: Omniboek, 1983; Dirk Mulder & Ben Prinsen (red.), Uitgeweken. De voorgeschiedenis van kamp Westerbork, Hooghalen: Herinneringscentrum Kamp Westerbork, 1989.
- ^ Bas von Benda-Beckmann Na het Achterhuis. Anne Frank en de andere onderuikers in de kampen, Amsterdam: Querido, 2020, p. 69.
- ^ Zie verder: Jacob Boas, Boulevard des Misères. Het verhaal van doorgangskamp Westerbork, Amsterdam: Nijgh en Van Ditmar, 1988; Willy Lindwer, Kamp van hoop en wanhoop. Getuigen van Westerbork, 1939-1945, Amsterdam: Balans, 1990; Harm van der Veen, Westerbork 1939 - 1945. Het verhaal van vluchtelingenkamp en Durchgangslager Westerbork, Hooghalen: Herinneringscentrum Kamp Westerbork, 2003.
- ^ Von Benda-Beckmann Na het Achterhuis, p. 68, 101.