Camp Westerbork: The Dutch Concentration Camp from WWII

What you are about to see and read here came out of the blue on our Zuidlaren trip 3 weeks ago, which is why I have saved it to the last.  It was something about which I knew nothing!

The route we took to Zuidlaren happened to take us by Westerbork, which is when Astrid remembered there was a concentration camp for the Jews during WWII.  It was built by the Dutch government in 1939 in nearby Hooghalen as a refuge for the Jews fleeing from Germany.

But, sadly, in 1942 it was taken over by the Nazis and became a transit camp for over 107,000 Dutch, Romani and German Jews, deporting them by train to the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Sobibor, Bergen-Belsen, Thereisienstadt and Mauthausen.

Even though visiting this camp was not in our plan for the already full day, we both instantly made the decision to change plans and visit it.

As you enter the camp, you first see the museum...for which we paid  

but didn't have the time to see, not knowing the actual camp, 3 km away, was free.

"Camp Westerbork is the story of the murder of one person 102,000 times."

It's also the story of 93 transports leaving the camp, with only 5,000 deportees returning alive,
one of whom was Anne Frank's father.

Our museum ticket actually did give us a free bus ride to the actual camp, 3 km away.
15 July 1942--the first train to Auschwitz
12 April 1945--Camp Westerbork liberated
107,000 deported; 102,000 victims; 5,000 survivors

20,706 children

239 children born in the camp
120 barracks

The camp existed from 1939-1945, first as a refugee camp and then as a transit camp.

It was demolished in 1970.

But remnants, like these boxcars, now tell the story, leaving much to the imagination.

For instance, on 8 June 1943, 3,019 persons were transported to Sobibor in 46 wagons/boxcars.

A Ghost of the 120 barracks sits eerily in the field...

while one across the road puts flesh on its bones.

The array of telescopes nearby makes you wonder...did the Universe see????

In the heart of the camp is the Jerusalem Stone, unveiled by Israel's President in 1993.

"My sorrow is continually before me." --Psalm 38:18

At the edges of the camp are the barbed-wire fences and watch tower.

Near the watch tower, at the former roll-call site, is the National Monument Westerbork, 

designed by a former prisoner, Ralph Prins.

It symbolizes the extermination of thousands of Jews, represented by the stones,

each memorializing a murdered man, woman or child.

Further out towards the perimeter, where the trees are still silent witnesses,

are the punishment barracks where Anne Frank and her family were detained.

The Nazis used the blocks for those Jews captured in hiding,

as well as for prisoners who disobeyed the camp rules.

Anne Frank's family was arrested while hiding in Amsterdam.

They were deported on one of the last trains that left the camp, 3 September 1944.

Anne was transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where she died of typhus

in Feb/Mar 1945, just weeks before the camp was liberated in April.

The commandant's house, with its glass dome, stands at the bus drop-off point

as another silent witness to the unimaginable forces of evil.

There were duplicates of notes written and B&W photos throughout the camp.

A potato cellar.  A model of the camp.  Cloves. 

Too many impressions without knowing the significance.

But the fields of lupines everywhere were not lost on us, a salve on our wounded souls.

Astrid read that the prisoners, too, were witness to them, midst their misery.

And the trees.  They were everywhere, whispering their secrets,

even when we walked the 3 km back to the museum.

In fact, near the beginning of the trail stands the JB stone and tree planted in 1937.

The then Dutch Princess, Juliana, and her husband Bernard were big on planting trees

to help reclaim land after floods.  

Little did they know for what they had prepared this land. 

Markers along the way shared dates and the number of persons transferred to concentration camps.

I picked 24 August because that's Astrid's birthday...and because Auschwitz is so well-known.

How do you find hope or solace midst such an unexpected diversion on our weekend trip?

I didn't cry then because I was numb.

But today...I cry.

ANTWERP, Belgium: Part 2

After a good night's sleep in Antwerp, we headed out to see a different part of the city the next day, about a 30-minute walk from city center.  We knew we HAD to see the central train station, which is considered one of Europe's finest.

On a foggy Saturday morning, this is what we saw as we approached her.

In our peripheral vision, just off to the left of the station, is the Antwerp Zoo.

It's the oldest zoo in Belgium and one of the oldest in the world, from 1843.

Another day.  Another time.

 When we entered the train station.....W. O. W.

The station, finished in 1905, has 4 levels with 14 platforms.

And what wondeful light!

After touring the inside, we exited at the back (or another front?)

 and saw the Church of Our Lady, Onze Lieve Vrouwekathedraal, from the day before.

At this side of the train station, were veered off to the left into the Jewish neighborhood....

...where all the Antwerp diamonds are!  HA!

Antwerp is one of the biggest centers of the world's diamond industry

and is home to the Hasidic Jewish community of ca. 15,000 people.

 Totally unplanned by us, we just happened to be walking through the neighborhood late morning...

just as worshippers were leaving their synagogues on the Sabbath!

OMG!  Talk about being "short of eyes."

I tried to be as discreet as possible, of course, while taking pictures.

At one point Astrid stopped one of the men with the big fur hats

and found out they are Polish Jews, wearing the hats of their grandfathers' grandfathers!

As we continued walking around, we started "collecting" Mezuzah doorpost blessings.

Notice the two spots where they've been removed!

Happy Chanukah!

And with Astrid's foot, she's pointing to a shoe scrapper in the outside wall.

At that point we walked back to the train station for a koffie break before continuing on....

...to Chinatown, on the other side of the train station, where we first entered earlier.

What a shock, to go from the Jewish section to the Chinese section of town!

Talk about two sides of the same track!

As I've worked on my images these past two weeks, I have many impressions, of course.

 Surely you know that Belgium is a country known for its beers!

I wonder if "99 bottles of beer on a wall" came from there?

Except, make it 300 or more.

There are 178 breweries in Belgium.  Count them.

Wouldn't it be fun to visit them all!

And just to say we did it, we entered Bier Central with 20 beers on tap

and another 300 in bottles.

No, we didn't sit down to try one because....

...we were on our way to Wagamama for our main meal of the day.

Great beer with edamame...and a main course I forgot to capture!

We LOVE Wagamama, wherever we can find it!

You know me and architecture....

...and gevelstenen (= gable stones) and weathervanes, of course.

Impressions.  Impressions.

And more impressions.

Antwerp in two days.  Now you know why at only an hour's drive away, we have promised each other to go back at least once a year...if nothing else for the mussels alone!  If you liked mussels as much as Astrid does, wouldn't you drive an hour away to eat some good ones?!

And now for next week, the Christmas market in Köln, Germany!  It IS that time of the year....