A sobering post. On this day in 2014, we visited Westerbork. There isn't a lot of the original camp left. It was dismantled, except for the rail tracks which were left in place, but broken. While it wasn't a death camp, but a transit camp to move the Jewish people to the the deathcamps, a solemness remains. The camp was liberated on April 12, 1945 by the Canadians, who found 876 inmates remaining at the camp. A bit more history, an Excerpt from the Holocaust Encyclopedia:
From 1942 to 1944 Westerbork served
as a transit camp for Dutch Jews before they were deported to killing
centers in German-occupied Poland. In early 1942, the Germans enlarged
the camp. In July 1942 the German Security Police, assisted by an SS company
and Dutch military police, took control of Westerbork. Erich Deppner was
appointed camp commandant and Westerbork's role as a transit camp for deportations to
the east began, with deportation trains leaving every Tuesday. From July 1942
until September 3, 1944, the Germans deported 97,776 Jews from Westerbork:
54,930 to Auschwitz in
68 transports, 34,313 to Sobibor in
19 transports, 4,771 to the Theresienstadt ghetto
in 7 transports, and 3,762 to the Bergen-Belsen concentration
camp in 9 transports. Most of those deported to Auschwitz and Sobibor were
killed upon arrival."
" ...let us
remember those who suffered and perished then, those who fell with weapons in
their hands and those who died with prayers on their lips, all those who have
no tombs: our heart remains their cemetery." -- Elie Wiesel
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