Editing Amersfoort (section)

=== Second World War ===
[[File:Amersfoort-plaats-OpenTopo.jpg|thumb|Topographic map of Amersfoort, 2014]]
Since Amersfoort was the largest garrison town in the Netherlands before the outbreak of the [[World War II|Second World War]], with eight barracks, and part of the [[Grebbe line|main line of defence]], the whole population of then 43,000 was evacuated at the start of the invasion by the Germans in May 1940. After four days of battle, the population was allowed to return.

There was a functioning Jewish community in the town, at the beginning of the war numbering about 700 people. Half of them were deported and killed, mainly in [[Auschwitz]] and [[Sobibor extermination camp|Sobibor]]. In 1943, the [[synagogue]], dating from 1727, was severely damaged on the orders of the then Nazi-controlled city government. It was restored and opened again after the war, and has been served since by a succession of [[rabbi]]s.

There was a [[Nazism|Nazi]] [[concentration camp]] near the city of Amersfoort during the war. The camp, officially called ''Polizeiliches Durchgangslager Amersfoort'' (Police Transit Camp Amersfoort), better known as ''[[Kamp Amersfoort]]'', was actually located in the neighbouring municipality of [[Leusden]].

After the war the leader of the camp, Joseph Kotälla, served a life sentence in prison. He died in captivity in 1979. Some of the victims of the camp are buried in [[Rusthof cemetery]] near the town.

Among the victims were prisoners of war from the [[Soviet Union]], including 101 Central Asians, mostly [[Uzbeks]]. Locals would commemorate them, but the identity of the 101 soldiers was not known, until journalist Remco Reiding started investigating this case in 1999, after hearing about the cemetery. Amongst the few remaining people who witnessed the 101 soldiers is Henk Broekhuizen.<ref name=Soldat>[http://www.soldat.ru/search/f_glory/soldiers.html "Soviet Field of Glory"] {{in lang|ru}}</ref><ref name="BBC2017CentralAsians">{{cite news |author=Rustam Qobil |publisher=BBC |title=Why were 101 Uzbeks killed in the Netherlands in 1942? |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-39849088 |date=9 May 2017 |access-date=9 May 2017}}</ref>