Camp Vught National Memorial

Nationaal Monument Kamp Vught

The site of the former Herzogenbusch concentration camp has been a national memorial site since 1986. In the Netherlands, the camp is known as »Kamp Vught«.

History

Herzogenbusch was one of the few SS concentration camps west of the German Reich. It was established in the village of Vught, close to the town of Herzogenbusch (Dutch: ’s-Hertogenbosch) in the southern Netherlands. The higher SS and police leader in the Netherlands, Hans Albin Rauter, wanted Herzogenbusch to be a »model camp« in order to counter the atrocious reputation of the German camps. Especially the rumours about the Amersfoort camp had appalled the Dutch population.
On January 13, 1943, the first prisoners entered the unfinished camp, which they had to complete constructing under terrible conditions. They were guarded by German and Dutch members of the SS. Initially planned as a »police transit camp for youths«, Herzogenbusch gradually became a camp in which different categories of prisoners were held. The Herzogenbusch camp consisted of several parts: a »police transit camp for youths«, a »protective custody camp« for male prisoners, a women's camp and a camp for hostages. The conditions varied among the different camp sections. Although the conditions at Herzogenbusch were in parts slightly better than those at other concentration camps, the prisoners were subjected to daily abuse by the SS guards.
Until March 1943, all of the prisoners from the Amersfoort camp were transferred to Herzogenbusch. The company Philips established workshops in the camp, in which about 1,200 prisoners were deployed alongside civilians from outside the camp.
In the summer of 1944, as the Allies were advancing, the dissolution of the camp was begun. The SS shot over 300 prisoners before the final evacuation.

Vught, undated, Entrance to the Vught camp, Nationaal Monument Kamp Vught, R. D. Fleming

Vught, 2010, National memorial on the execution site, André van Schaik

Victims

In total, over 31,000 prisoners passed through the Herzogenbusch camp. 749 prisoners died in the camp, 329 were shot in the summer of 1944. 12,000 prisoners were Jews; they were transferred from Herzogenbusch to the central transit camp at Westerbork, from where they were deported to extermination camps in occupied Poland – only few survived. On January 15, 1944, 74 women were locked into a 9 square metre large cell overnight; 10 of them died. This event is referred to as the »bunker drama«.

When the Germans invaded the Kingdom of the Netherlands in May 1940 there were around 120,000 Jews living in the country, 75,000 of whom were in Amsterdam. An SS-led civil administration quickly began to implement anti-Jewish measures and organised acts of violence. A »Central Office for Jewish Emigration« was established by the SS in Amsterdam by the end of March 1941. On June 22 the following year Adolf Eichmann (1906–1962), head of the department for Jewish affairs in the SS Reich Security Main Office, informed the Foreign Office in Berlin that an agreement had been concluded with the German Reich Railways (Reichsbahn), one of the provisions of which was the deportation of 40,000 Jews from the Netherlands. These Jews were firstly detained in the Westerbork transit camp, where lists of names for deportation were produced. The first trains left here for Eastern Europe in the middle of July 1942. There were repeated raids to get hold of the Jews earmarked for deportation. By September 1944 around one hundred deportation transports had left Westerbork for the Auschwitz and Sobibor extermination camps, the Theresienstadt ghetto or the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The SS deported over 100,000 people; mainly Jews but also Roma. Jews with Dutch nationality were also deported to their deaths from France and Belgium. The total number of Dutch Jews murdered between May 1940 and the end of 1944 lies at around 102,000, or 75 percent of the pre-war Jewish population of the country. Over 110,000 Jewish civilians also died during the war and occupation. There are countless monuments, museums, memorial sites, plaques and small sites of memory related to the Second World War in the Netherlands, along with research institutes and archives. The 22 metre high »Nationaal Monument op de Dam« (National Monument on Dam Square) was inaugurated in Amsterdam as early as 1947. Dedicated to all Dutch »victims of the Second World War«, the monument’s current design dates from 1956. The Anne Frank House was opened in 1960. There are national sites of memory at the former National Socialist concentration or transit camps. For example, a memorial site was established in Westerbork in 1983 comprising the historic grounds, a national monument and a modern museum. In 1987, the »Joods Historisch Museum« (Jewish Historical Museum) was inaugurated in the Great Synagogue in Amsterdam. This museum also charts the persecution and murder of the Jews. In 2021, the Durch Holocaust Memorial of Names was inaugurated in Amsterdam that lists the names of 102.000 murdered Jews and Sinti and Roma on its walls. After the war, the Dutch culture of memory was characterised above all by its emphasis on the resistance against the German occupation. From the 1980s, increasing attention was paid to the question of how the majority of the population adapted themselves to the occupation, as opposed to those who consciously collaborated. A further feature of Dutch memory is its focus on the present. This approach is especially clear in memorials to the persecuted Sinti and Roma as well as in one of the best known monuments in the world to the homosexual victims of National Socialism, located in Amsterdam.

Remembrance

After the liberation, the Allies used the camp to intern Dutch collaborators and German civilians from embattled areas. In March 1945, there were 6,166 prisoners at the camp. The internment camp was dismantled in 1949, and part of the premises was converted to barracks for the Dutch army. A prison and accommodation for refugees from former Dutch colonies were set up on other areas of the former camp.
Shortly after the camp was evacuated by the SS, citizens erected a cross at the execution site. In 1947, Princess Juliana unveiled a memorial to those who were shot on the site; later however, this memorial was situated on the prison premises, making it difficult to access. Efforts for erecting a memorial only came about in the 1980s. In 1986, the »Camp Vught National Memorial Foundation« (Dutch: »Stichting Nationaal Monument Kamp Vught«) was established. Many objects were renovated or reconstructed under direction of the foundation, such as the guard towers or the crematorium. In 1990, the newly designed memorial was opened. A visitor centre presenting an exhibition was added in 2002. The most important sites of commemoration on the former Herzogenbusch camp premises are the site of the »bunker drama«, the crematorium, a monument to the deported Jewish children as well as the national memorial on the execution site, which was dedicated in 1947.

Vught, undated, Transport of Jews from the Vught train station to the Herzogenbusch concentration camp, Nationaal Monument Kamp Vught, v. Heel.

Vught, 2006, Entrance to the visitor centre, Ronnie Golz

Possibilities

Guided tours, documentation centre, library and archive, publications, educational material, museum shop

Open

April to September
daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Otherwise Tuesday to Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, Sunday and on holidays noon to 5 p.m.

Contact

http://www.nmkampvught.nl

info@nmkampvught.nl

+31 (0)73 656 67 64

Lunettenlaan 600
5263 NT Vught

Vught, 2006, Monument to the deported Jewish children, Ronnie Golz

Vught, 2010, Monument to the deported Jewish children, André van Schaik

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