Editing Westerbork transit camp

{{Short description|Nazi transit camp for Jews in the occupied Netherlands}}
{{Redirect|Westerbork}}
{{Infobox concentration camp
| name            = Westerbork 
| type            = Transit camp
| image           = Westerbork camp 1940-1945.jpg
| caption         = Barracks at Westerbork after liberation
| location map    = Netherlands 
| map relief      = yes
| map alt         = 
| map caption     = 
| coordinates     = {{coord|52|55|3|N|6|36|26|E|type:landmark|display=inline,title}}
| other names     = Polizeiliches Durchgangslager Westerbork, Judendurchgangslager Westerbork
| known for       = 
| location        = [[Westerbork (village)|Westerbork]], Netherlands
| built by        = 
| operated by     = [[SS-Totenkopfverbände|SS]]
| original use    = Refugee camp
| construction    = 
| in operation    = 1939 – 1940<br/> (as a refugee camp)<br/> 1 July 1942 –<br/> 12 April 1945<br/> (as a transit camp) 
| gas chambers    = 
| prisoner type   = Jews 
| inmates         = {{unbulleted list|97,776 deported, mostly to [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]] and [[Sobibor extermination camp|Sobibór]]|876 liberated}}
| killed          = 
| liberated by    = [[2nd Canadian Division|Canadian 2nd Infantry Division]]
| notable inmates = [[Anne Frank]], [[Dora Gerson]], [[Etty Hillesum]], [[Philip Slier]], [[Edith Stein]], [[Selma Wijnberg-Engel]], [[Max Ehrlich]], [[Wilhelm Mautner]], [[Ellen Burka]], [[Walter Süskind]], [[Settela Steinbach]], [[Maurice Frankenhuis]], [[Kurt Gerron]]
| notable books   = ''[[Jacques Presser|The Night of the Girondins]]''
| website         = {{URL|http://www.westerbork.nl}}
}}
'''Camp Westerbork''' ({{langx|nl|Kamp Westerbork}}, {{langx|de|Durchgangslager Westerbork}}, [[Drents]]: ''Börker Kamp; Kamp Westerbörk''), also known as '''Westerbork transit camp''', was a [[Nazi Germany|Nazi]] transit camp in the [[Provinces of the Netherlands|province]] of [[Drenthe]] in the Northeastern [[Netherlands]], during [[World War II]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005217|title=Westerbork|last=Holocaust Encyclopedia|website=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum}}</ref> It was located in the [[Municipalities of the Netherlands|municipality]] of [[Westerbork (village)|Westerbork]], current-day [[Midden-Drenthe]]. Camp Westerbork was used as a staging location for sending [[Jews]], [[Sinti]] and [[Romani people|Roma]] to [[Internment|concentration camps]] elsewhere.<ref name=":2" />

== Purpose of Camp Westerbork ==
The camp location was established by the Government of the Netherlands in the summer of 1939 to serve as a refugee camp for [[Germans]] and [[Austrians]] (German and Austrian Jews in particular), who had fled to the Netherlands to escape [[Nazism|Nazi]] persecution.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/history-and-overview-of-westerbork|title=Westerbork Transit Camp|last=Project Aice|website=Jewish Virtual Library|access-date=28 February 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Camp Westerbork |website=Traces of War |author=Prenger, Kevin |publisher=STIWOT (Stichting Informatie Wereldoorlog Twee) |url=https://www.tracesofwar.com/articles/4439/Camp-Westerbork.htm |access-date=2021-05-18}}</ref>

[[File:WesterborkLageplan.jpg|thumb|left|Map of Camp Westerbork]]
[[File:Westerbork-monument2.jpg|thumb|left|Reconstructed watchtower at Westerbork]]
However, after the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940, that original purpose no longer existed. By 1942, Camp Westerbork was repurposed as a staging ground for the deportation of Jews.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Boulevard Des Miseres The Story of Transit Camp Westerbork|last=Boas|first=Jacob|publisher=Archon Books|year=1985|isbn=0208019774|location=Hamden, Connecticut|pages=3–32}}</ref> Only {{convert|50|ha|acre}} in area, the camp was not built for the purpose of industrial murder as were Nazi [[extermination camp]]s. Westerbork was considered by [[Nazi Party|Nazi]] standards as "humane".<ref name=":2" /> Jewish, Sinti and Roma inmates with families were housed in 200 interconnected cottages that contained two rooms, a toilet, a hot plate for cooking, as well as a small yard. Single inmates were placed in oblong [[barracks]] which contained a bathroom for each sex.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

Transport trains arrived at Westerbork every Tuesday from July 1942 to September 1944; an estimated 97,776 Jews, Sinti and Roma were deported during the period.<ref name=":0" /> Jewish, Sinti and Roma inmates were deported in waves to [[Auschwitz concentration camp]] (65 train-loads totaling 60,330 people), [[Sobibór extermination camp|Sobibór]] (19 train-loads; 34,313 people), [[Theresienstadt concentration camp|Theresienstadt ghetto]] and [[Bergen-Belsen concentration camp]] (9 train-loads; 4,894 people).<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> Almost all of the 94,643 persons deported to Auschwitz and Sobibór in [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|German-occupied Poland]] were killed upon arrival.<ref name=":0" />

Camp Westerbork also had a school, orchestra, hairdresser and even restaurants designed by [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] officials to give inmates a false sense of hope for survival and to aid in avoiding problems during transportation.<ref name=":1" /> Cultural activities provided by the Nazis for designated deportees included metalwork, jobs in [[health services]] and other cultural activities.<ref name=":1" />

A special, separate work cadre of 2,000 "permanent" Jewish, Sinti and Roma inmates were used as a camp labour force.<ref name=":0" /> Within this group was a subgroup constituting a camp [[Jewish Police (Holocaust)|police force]] which was required to assist with transports and keep order.<ref name=":0" /> The SS had little involvement with selecting transferees; this job fell to another class of inmates.<ref name=":1" /> Most of these 2,000 "permanent" inmates were eventually sent to concentration or death camps themselves.<ref name=":0" />

===Notable prisoners===
[[File:Westerbork, a school in the camp.jpg|left|thumb|Class photo from the school within Westerbork]]
Notable prisoners in Westerbork included [[Anne Frank]], who was transported to Camp Westerbork on 8 August 1944,<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Aftermath|last=Prose|first=Francine|publisher=Harper Collins|year=2009|location=New York, New York|pages=53–59}}</ref> as well as [[Etty Hillesum]], each of whom wrote of their experiences in diaries discovered after the war.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|title=Anne Frank and Etty Hillesum Inscribing Spirituality and Sexuality|last=De Costa|first=Denise|publisher=Rutgers University Press|year=1998|isbn=0813525500|location=New Brunswick, New Jersey|pages=167–191}}</ref> Frank remained at the camp in a small hut until 3 September, when she was deported to Auschwitz.<ref name=":3" />

Hillesum was able to avoid the Nazi dragnet that identified Jews until April 1942.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |last=Hanan |first=Frenk |date=31 December 1999 |title=Etty Hillesum |url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/hillesum-etty |access-date=20 April 2018 |website=Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women. [[Jewish Women's Archive]]}}</ref> Even after being labeled a Jew, she began to report on [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] policies. She took a job with [[Judenrat]] for two weeks and then volunteered to accompany the first group of Jews sent to Westerbork.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /> Hillesum stayed at Westerbork until 7 September 1943, when she was deported to Auschwitz, where she was killed three months later.<ref name=":5" />

[[File:Hut-AnneFrank-Westerbork.jpg|thumb|Parts of a rebuilt hut at Westerbork, which once held Anne Frank]]
Camp Westerbork also housed German film actress and cabaret singer [[Dora Gerson]] who was interned there with her family before being sent to Auschwitz and Professor Sir [[William Asscher]] who survived the camp when his mother secured his family's release by fabricating English ancestry. [[Jona Oberski]] wrote of his experience as a small child at Westerbork in his book, ''Kinderjaren'' ("Childhood"), published in the Netherlands in 1978 and later made into the film, ''[[Jonah Who Lived in the Whale]]''.

[[Maurice Frankenhuis]] chronicled his family's experiences while interned in Westerbork and in 1948 conducted an interview with its Commander Albert Konrad Gemmeker while Gemmeker awaited trial. The published interview in Dutch and English became the basis for a docudrama created in September 2019.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.dvhn.nl/drenthe/midden-drenthe/Premi%C3%A8re-korte-speelfilm-Gemmeker-met-historische-transportbeelden-in-kleur-24815045.html|title=Première korte speelfilm Gemmeker met historische transport beelden in kleur|date=September 12, 2019|language=nl}}</ref> The film features colorization of original video of transports from Westerbork by photographer [[Rudolf Breslauer]].

Another prisoner at Camp Westerbork from 9 March 1944 to 23 March 1944 was [[Hans Mossel]] (1905–1944), a Jewish-[[Dutch people|Dutch]] [[clarinet]]ist and [[Saxophone|saxophonist]], before he was sent to the [[Monowitz concentration camp|Auschwitz III camp]].<ref>[https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/archive/1-2-4-2_1242013/?p=1&doc_id=130344735 Information on the deportation of Hans Mossel via the Arolson online archives.]</ref>

On 16 May 2024, a memorial was erected to remember the famous Sinti families [[:nl:Tata Mirando|Weiss]] (Tata Mirando) and Meinhardt, who lost some 200 members of their families to the Holocaust, transported from Westerbork camp to [[Auschwitz-Birkenau]].

== Leadership within the Camp ==
Jacques Schol, a Dutchman, was commander of the camp from 16 July 1940 and until January 1943. Certain accounts report he was known for his brutality against Jewish inmates, allegedly kicking inmates to death.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ballis |first1=Anja |title=Holocaust Education Revisited |date=2019 |publisher=Springer |page=114 |isbn=9783658242053 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I0G7DwAAQBAJ&q=mari%C3%ABnbosch+kick+Jews&pg=PA114}}</ref> Other accounts state on the contrary that "although strict and organised, Schol was never cruel or violent". Furthermore, "Schol, who was anti-German, understood that a strict organisation of the camp was the best way to keep the Germans from taking over the camp". In 1941, German authorities understood that "Schol was too lenient and because of this attitude, the Jews felt too comfortable in the camp".<ref>[http://www.holocaust-lestweforget.com/jacques-schol.html "Camp Westerbork - Jacques Schol"], The Holocaust: Lest We Forget.</ref>

German authorities took control of Westerbork from the Government of the Netherlands on 1 July 1942 when Schol was replaced by a German commander.<ref name=":0" /> Deportations began under the orders of [[Gestapo]] sub-Department IV-B4, which was headed by [[Adolf Eichmann]].<ref name=":2" /> Gestapo officer Albert Konrad Gemmeker had overall command of the camp and was responsible for sending up to 100,000 Jews to the death camps.<ref>Buruma, Ian (2023). ''The Collaborators'', Penguin Press, pg 176, ISBN 9780593296646</ref> After the war, Gemmeker was sentenced to just ten years in prison. His light sentence was apparently due to his defense claim that he had no idea what would happen to the Jews after they were transported out of Westerbork.<ref>Buruma, pgs 221-222</ref> Within the confines of the camp, German SS members were in charge of inmates, but squads of Jewish police and security under [[Kurt Schlesinger]] were used to keep order and aid in transport.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kamparchieven.nl/en/camps-in-the-netherlands/camp-westerbork|title=Camp Westerbork|website=Kamparchieven|access-date=20 March 2018}}</ref>

== Liberation ==
Transports came to a halt at Camp Westerbork in September 1944.<ref name=":1" /> [[Allies of World War II|Allied troops]] neared Westerbork in early April 1945 after German officials abandoned the camp. Westerbork was liberated by Canadian forces on 12 April 1945. A total of 876 inmates were found.<ref name=":1" /> The War Diary of the South Saskatchewan Regiment referenced the camp in its entry for 12 April 1945:

:At 0930 hrs Lt-Col V Stott, DSO, accompanied by the I(ntelligence)O(fficer), Lt JD Cade, visited the Jewish Concentration Camp at (map reference) 2480. It was a rather startling sight as you approached the camp to see what is normally the appearance of a penitentiary. It was completely surrounded with barbed wire and had four lookout towers. Approximately 900 people were being held in this camp. The CO visited the officers kitchens and medical room and found the food and medical supplies to be in fairly good condition. While in the kitchen a number of A Co(mpan)y boys were observed helping the girls peel potatoes. It's surprising the influence girls, especially pretty ones, have with soldiers. It's a pity our cooks are unable to apply the same methods. Visiting a camp like this brings home to us the reality of what we are fighting for. It makes the average Canadian indignant and he asks "Who do the Germans think they are that they enclose other humans behind barbed wire simply because they are born Jews!"<ref>[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:War_Diary_South_Saskatchewan_Regiment_12_and_13_Apr_1945.jpg SSR War Diary]</ref>

==Post World War II==
Following the war, Westerbork was first used as a [[remand prison]] for alleged and accused Nazi [[Collaborationism|collaborators]]. It housed later Dutch nationals who fled the former [[Dutch East Indies]] ([[Indonesia]]).

Westerbork was completely disassembled in the 1960s by the Government of the Netherlands.<ref name=":1" /> Later, the Dutch built the [[Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope]], a large [[radio telescope]], on the site. Only the former camp commander’s house has been preserved, in a glass container.<ref name=":1" />

=== Historiography ===
[[File:Modell Westerbork.jpg|thumb|Model of the Westerbork concentration camp]]
In 1950, the government appointed Jewish historian [[Jacques Presser]] to investigate the events connected with the mass deportation of [[Jews in the Netherlands|Dutch Jewry]] and the extent of the collaboration by the non-Jewish Dutch population. The results were published fifteen years later in ''The Catastrophe'' (''De Ondergang''). Presser also published a novel, ''The Night of the Girondins'', which was set in Westerbork.

=== Holding place for Moluccan soldiers ===
In 1949, when the Dutch left their over [[Dutch East Indies|300 year occupation]] of Indonesia, [[native Indonesians]] were left in political unrest. Some people who had worked with French, Algerian and Dutch militaries were evacuated, because they were the subject of anger by the other indigenous people who had resisted colonisation and felt betrayed at the Moluccan peoples siding with their [[Colonization|colonisers]]. The peoples were promised a quick return to their homeland. However, from 1951 to 1971, former indigenous [[Moluccans|Moluccan]] [[Royal Netherlands East Indies Army|KNIL]] soldiers and their families were made to stay in the camp. During this time, the camp was renamed ''Kamp Schattenberg'' (Camp Schattenberg).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Go Back to Where You Came From: The Backlash Against Immigration and the Fate of Western Democracy|last=Polakow-Suransky|first=Sasha|publisher=Nation Books|year=2017|isbn=978-1568585925|pages=19}}</ref>

=== Memorials ===
[[File:Monument appelplaats Kamp Westerbork2.jpg|thumb|"{{ill|The 102,000 stones|nl|De 102.000 stenen}}" monument at Westerbork. Each individual stone represents a single person that stayed at Westerbork and was killed in [[Nazi concentration camp|Nazi concentration]] and [[extermination camp]]s.]]

A museum was created two miles from Westerbork to keep the memories of those imprisoned in the camp alive.<ref name=":1" /> As a tribute to those inmates who were killed after deportation, a memorial was commissioned;<ref name=":1" /> it consists of 102,000 stones, representing each person who was deported from Westerbork and never returned.
[[File:Memorial stones at Camp Westerbork.jpg|thumb|Memorial stones at Camp Westerbork]]
The National Westerbork Memorial was unveiled at the site by Queen [[Juliana of the Netherlands]] on 4 May 1970.<ref>{{cite web | title=Jodenvervolging: Nationaal Monument Westerbork| website=Drenthe in de oorlog | url=http://www.drentheindeoorlog.nl/index.php?aid=346 | language=nl |quote=Het Nationaal Monument Westerbork wordt op 4 mei 1970 officieel door Koningin Juliana onthuld| access-date=2019-02-08}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite web|url=http://www.kampwesterbork.nl/en/museum/camp-grounds/the-national-westerbork-memorial/index.html#/index|title=The National Westerbork Memorial|website=Herinneringscentrum Kamp Westerbork|access-date=1 May 2018}}</ref> Also, a monument of a broken railroad track torn from the ground is displayed near the camp to symbolize the destruction the camp, as well as others, wrought on the European Jewish population, and the determination that the tracks would never again carry people to their deaths.<ref name=":6" />

In 2017, [[Westerbork film| films commissioned by the German camp commander Albert Gemmeker]] from a Jewish prisoner, [[Rudolf Breslauer]], to document everyday life in the Westerbork transit camp, were submitted by the Netherlands and included in the [[UNESCO]]'s [[Memory of the World]] Register.<ref>{{cite web|title=Westerbork films|website=Memory of the World|publisher=United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization|url=https://www.unesco.org/en/memory-world/westerbork-films|access-date=2025-05-02}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Herzogenbusch concentration camp]]
* [[Amersfoort concentration camp]]
* [[Camp Barneveld]]

==References==
<references />
*Herbstrith, W. (1983). ''Edith Stein: A biography'' (5th rev. ed.) (Trans. B. Bonowitz). San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row Publishers.

==Further reading==
* Jonathan Gardiner:  ''One-Way Ticket from Westerbork''. Oegstgeest, The Netherlands: Amsterdam Publishers, 2021, {{ISBN|9789493056756}}
* Hans-Dieter Arntz: ''Der letzte Judenälteste von Bergen-Belsen. Josef Weiss - würdig in einer unwürdigen Umgebung''. Aachen 2012.
* Jacob Boas, ''Boulevard des Misères: the Story of the Transit Camp Westerbork''. Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books, 1985 {{ISBN|0-208-01977-4}}
* Etty Hillesum, ''Letters from Westerbork''. New York: Pantheon, 1986  {{ISBN|0-394-55350-0}} (originally published in the Netherlands as ''Het denkende hart van de barak'', 1982)
* Cecil Law, ''Kamp Westerbork, transit camp to eternity : the liberation story''. Clementsport, N.S. : Canadian Peacekeeping Press, 2000 {{ISBN|1896551351}}
* Harry Mulisch, ''The Discovery of Heaven''. Penguin Press, 1992, {{ISBN|0-1402-3937-5}}
* Jacob Presser, ''The Destruction of the Dutch Jews'' New York: Dutton, 1969, translated by A. Pomerans.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Kamp Westerbork}}
*[https://kampwesterbork.nl/en/ Memorial Center Camp Westerbork], official website
*[http://www.max-ehrlich.org Cabaret Behind Barbed Wire: Max Ehrlich & the Westerbork Theater Group]
*[http://www.edwardvictor.com/Holocaust/Netherlands.htm Netherlands: Westerbork]
* [https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/westerbork Holocaust Encyclopaedia]

{{The Holocaust}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Westerbork transit camp}}
[[Category:1939 establishments in the Netherlands]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Drenthe]]
[[Category:History of Drenthe]]
[[Category:Midden-Drenthe]]
[[Category:Museums in Drenthe]]
[[Category:Westerbork transit camp]]
[[Category:World War II museums in the Netherlands]]
[[Category:Internment camps in the Netherlands]]
[[Category:20th-century architecture in the Netherlands]]