Herzogenbusch concentration camp

Camp Vught
Konzentrationslager Herzogenbusch
Concentration camp

Black and white shot of a water-filled ditch, barbed-wire fences, and guard towers

A view along the fences of the camp, 1945
Location of the camp in the Netherlands
Coordinates 51°39′57″N 5°15′32″E / 51.66583°N 5.25889°E / 51.66583; 5.25889Coordinates: 51°39′57″N 5°15′32″E / 51.66583°N 5.25889°E / 51.66583; 5.25889
Known for 1943 – present
Location Vught, Netherlands
Built by Nazi Germany
Operated by SS
Commandant
First built 1942
Operational January 1943
26 October 1944
Inmates Jews, Gypsies political prisoners, resistance fighters, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, homeless people, black market traders, criminals, hostages
Killed 749
Liberated by 4th Canadian Armored Division
96th Battery of the 5th Anti-Tank Division
Notable inmates Anton Constandse, Helga Deen, David Koker
Notable books Diary of David Koker
Guide Camp Vught National Memorial: Final destination or transit station
Website www.nmkampvught.nl
Beds in the baracks of the camp
Washing area for the prisoners
Watchtowers and barbed wire fences in the camp
The crematorium in the camp

Herzogenbusch concentration camp (Dutch: Kamp Vught, pronounced [kɑmp ˈfɵxt],[1] German: Konzentrationslager Herzogenbusch [kɔntsɛntʁaˈtsi̯oːnsˌlaːɡɐ hɛʁtsoːɡənˈbʊʃ]) was a Nazi concentration camp located in Vught near the city of 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. Herzogenbusch was, with Natzweiler-Struthof in occupied France, the only concentration camp run directly by the SS in western Europe outside of Germany. The camp was first used in 1943 and held 31,000 prisoners. 749 prisoners died in the camp, and the others were transferred to other camps shortly before the camp was liberated by the Allied Forces in 1944. After the war the camp was used as a prison for Germans and Dutch collaborators. Today there is a visitors' center with exhibitions and a national monument remembering the camp and its victims. The camp is now a museum.

History

During World War II, Nazi Germany occupied Netherlands (1940–1945). In 1942 the Nazis transported Jewish and other prisoners from the Netherlands via the transit camps Amersfoort and Westerbork to the Auschwitz concentration camp, except for 850 prisoners sent to Mauthausen concentration camp.[2] When Amersfoort and Westerbork appeared to be too small to handle the large amount of prisoners, the Schutzstaffel (SS) decided to build a concentration camp in Vught near the city of 's-Hertogenbosch.[3]

The building of the camp at Herzogenbusch, the German name for 's-Hertogenbosch, started in 1942.[4] The camp was modelled on concentration camps in Germany.[3] The first prisoners, who arrived in 1943, had to finish the construction of the camp;[4] it was used from January 1943 until September 1944. During this period, it held nearly 31,000 prisoners: Jews, political prisoners, resistance fighters, Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, homeless people, black market traders, criminals, and hostages.[4]

Due to hunger, sickness, and abuse, at least 749 men, women and children died there. Of these, 329 were murdered at the execution site just outside the camp.[4] When allied forces were approaching Herzogenbusch, the camp was evacuated and the prisoners were transferred to concentration camps further east, with women inmates being transferred to Ravensbrück Concentration Camp, and the men to Sachsenhausen concentration camp by 4 -5 September 1944.[5] On 26 October 1944, the 4th Canadian (Armoured) Division, the 96th Battery of the 5th Anti-tank Regiment, Royal Canadian Army liberated the camp after fighting a rear guard of SS guards left to defend the nearly evacuated camp. There were around 500-600 live prisoners left who had been set up for execution that afternoon, whose lives were spared by the arrival of the liberating Canadian forces. About 500 inmates were discovered dead in piles near the gates, who had been executed the morning that the camp was liberated.[5][6]

In the first years after the war, the camp was used for the detention of Germans, Dutch SS men, alleged collaborators and their children, and war criminals.[7] At first, they were guarded by allied soldiers, but shortly after by the Dutch.

Diary of David Koker

A Jewish student, David Koker (born 1921), lived with his family in Amsterdam until he was captured on the night of 11 February 1943 and transported to Vught camp. During his internment he wrote a diary, which was smuggled out of the camp in parts; it is now complete and conserved. It records events from 11 February 1943 until 8 February 1944. David wrote poems in his diary and taught Jewish children in the camp.

On 2 June 1944 he and his family were transported by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau. David got the chance to throw a letter from the train. The family was later transported to the Groß-Rosen camp (Langenbielau).

Netherlands: Lieve vrienden, we zijn nu dicht bij de grens. Het is wel teleurstellend, maar we waren erop voorbereid en zijn vol vertrouwen. Ik denk veel aan jullie. ... Ik heb alle brieven en foto's bij me. M'n liefste bezit. Wanneer zien we elkaar weer? Dat zal nu wel lang duren. Maar erdoor komen we. ... Heel veel liefs jongens, bedankt voor alles. Tot ziens.

United Kingdom: Dear friends, we are now close to the border. It is disappointing, but we were prepared and full of faith. I think a lot about you. ... I have all my dearest possessions with me: my letters and photos. When will we see each other again? That will take a long time. But we shall survive. ... Lots of love everyone, thanks for everything. Goodbye.

David's mother and brother Max survived the war, but David died during a transport of sick people to Dachau in 1945.[8]

Diary of Helga Deen

Helga Deen (Stettin, Germany, 6 April 1925 – Sobibor, 16 July 1943) was the author of a diary, discovered in 2004, which describes her stay in the Herzogenbusch concentration camp in Vught, where she was taken during World War II at the age of 18.

After her last diary entry, in early July 1943, Helga Deen was deported to Sobibór extermination camp and murdered. She was 18 years old.[9][10]

Commanders

Karl Chmielewski

The first commander of Herzogenbusch was 39-year-old Karl Chmielewski. During the first few months, the camp was poorly run: prisoners didn't receive meals, the sick were barely treated, and the quality of drinking water was very low. Chmielewski was ultimately tried and sentenced for his brutality towards the prisoners He was removed in 1943 for stealing from the camp on a large scale. In 1961 Chmielewski was sentenced to life imprisonment for his homicidal brutality towards the prisoners.[11]

Adam Grünewald

The second commander was 40-year-old Adam Grünewald. Immediately after assuming command over the camp, he set very strict rules. In January 1944 he ordered that a group of female prisoners was to be put into one cell. This resulted in what has become known as the Bunker Tragedy: twelve of the women packed into the cell died during the night. His superiors, unhappy that this tragedy was leaked to the press, brought him before an SS judge and he was sent to the Russian front as a common soldier. He was killed in action in 1945.[12]

Hans Hüttig

The last commander of Herzogenbusch was the 50-year-old Hans Hüttig. He joined the SS in 1932 as an unpaid volunteer, and the Nazi party soon thereafter.[13] In 1944 Huttig oversaw the evacuation and closure of the camp.[14]

List of subcamps

Current state

The execution site near the camp is now a national monument, with a wall bearing the names of all those who died there. The wall has suffered numerous acts of vandalism: Black smears were drawn on the wall, using tar, which has seeped into the stone and is impossible to remove.[15]

The camp was partially demolished after the war. The grounds now house an educational museum known as Nationaal Monument Kamp Vught,[16] the Van Brederodekazerne military base, a neighborhood for Indonesian refugees from Maluku, and the Nieuw Vosseveld high security prison. Still, parts of the old camp remain.[17] Central to the prison, the bunker where the Bunker Tragedy occurred still stands. Large parts of the southern camp buildings are now used by the Dutch military, including the former SS barracks that have a cross-shaped ground plan.[18][19]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Vught in isolation: [ˈvɵxt].
  2. ↑ Longerich, Peter (2010). Holocaust - The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews. Oxford University Press. pp. 360–1. ISBN 978-019280436-5.
  3. 1 2 Nmkampvught.nl (in Dutch).
  4. 1 2 3 4 Nmkampvught.nl (in Dutch).
  5. 1 2 "Concentration Camps: Vught". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  6. ↑ "British soldiers discover horrors of Vught camp". World War II Today. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  7. ↑ Nmkampvught.nl (in Dutch).
  8. ↑ Dagboek van David Koker
  9. ↑ "Shades of Anne Frank in Dutch prison camp diary." Sydney Morning Herald, 22 October 2004.
  10. ↑ "Dutch uncover diary of Nazi camp". BBC News. 20 October 2004. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
  11. ↑ Segev, Tom (2001). Soldiers of Evil. Berkley Books. P. 33.
  12. ↑ Nmkampvught.nl (in Dutch).
  13. ↑ Segev 2001, p. 193.
  14. ↑ Segev 2001, p. 195.
  15. ↑ "Fusilladeplaats" National monument kamp Vught
  16. ↑ Nmkampvught.nl (in Dutch).
  17. ↑ Nmkampvught.nl (in Dutch).
  18. ↑ Kamp Vught: kazerne in Vught (in Dutch), rijkmonumenten.nl, 2 October 2014, retrieved 15 October 2016
  19. ↑ Fietsroute Vught in de vuurlinie (PDF) (in Dutch), Gemeente Vught, 2004, retrieved 15 October 2016
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