Kamp Amersfoort (Dutch: Kamp Amersfoort, German: Durchgangslager Amersfoort) was a Nazi concentration camp near the city of Amersfoort, the Netherlands. The official name was "Polizeiliches Durchgangslager Amersfoort", P.D.A. or Amersfoort Police Transit Camp. 47,000 prisoners were held there between 1941 and 1945. The camp was situated in the northern part of the municipality of Leusden, on the municipal boundary between Leusden and Amersfoort in the central Netherlands.
In 1939, Kamp Amersfoort was still a complex of barracks that supported army artillery exercises on the nearby Leusderheide. From 1941 onwards, it did not merely function as a transit camp, as the name suggests. The terms "penal camp" or "work camp" would also be fitting. During the existence of the camp, many prisoners were put to work in work units. In total, around 37,000 prisoners were registered at Amersfoort.[1]
To get to the camp, prisoners had to walk from the railway sidings through the town and through residential neighborhoods:
Visible in the windows, above and below, of most residences and behind closed lace curtains, were numerous silhouettes, especially those of children. Usually, the silhouettes did not move. Sometimes, feebly and furtively, they waved. Children who waved were very quickly pulled back. It was a farewell from the inhabited world – now a realm of shades.[2]
1941–1943
The history of the camp can be separated into two periods. The first period began on August 18, 1941, and ended in March 1943. In March 1943 all but eight of the surviving first prisoners in Amersfoort were transferred to Kamp Vught concentration camp. The prisoner transfer to Kamp Vught allowed for the completion of an expansion of Kamp Amersfoort. Maintaining the camp, despite Kamp Vught becoming operational in January 1943, still appeared necessary to the Nazis.
Following the invasion of the USSR in June 1941, the camp held Sovietprisoners of war. These included 101 Uzbek prisoners brought to display to the Dutch for propaganda purposes, all either dying in the winter of 1941 or executed in woods near the camp in April 1942.[3] 865 Soviet prisoners are buried in nearby Rusthof cemetery.
The remaining watchtower, as can be seen on the memorial, was built around April/May 1943, when the expansion of Kamp Amersfoort was completed and prisoners could be held there again. In many ways, Kamp Amersfoort had changed relative to the first period. The most important changes were the much larger 'housing capacity', and the faster 'turnover'. What stayed the same, were the anarchy, the lack of hygiene, the lack of food, lack of medical attention, and the cruelty of the guards. A point of light for the prisoners was the presence of the Dutch Red Cross. The second period ended on April 19, 1945, when control of the camp was transferred to Loes van Overeem of the Red Cross following the sudden flight of the German camp staff, who took 70 odd prisoners with them to the "Oranje Hotel", a jail in Scheveningen used by the Germans to house opponents to their regime.[6] The facility remained in operation under the auspices of the Red Cross until May 7, when Canadian soldiers of the First Canadian Army arrived to officially liberate the camp.[7] Soldiers of I Canadian Corps fighting north from Arnhem were halted about a mile from Amersfoort before the end of the war, and liberation came on the day the German forces laid down their arms in the Netherlands.[8] The camp and surrounding area was administered by the 1st Canadian Division and later transferred to the 3rd Canadian Division, Canadian Army Occupation Force in June 1945.[9]
Prisoner population and life in Amersfoort
The fluctuating prisoner population consisted of an eclectic group of people from all over the Netherlands: Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war, members of the resistance, communists, hostages, clergy, alleged black marketeers, clandestine butchers, and smugglers. Between 1941 and 1943, 8,800 people were imprisoned in the camp, of whom 2,200 were deported to Germany. During the period 1943–1945, 26,500 people were imprisoned, of whom 18,000 were sent east to places such as Buchenwald and Natzweiler concentration camps.[10]
After the re-opening in 1943, 70 Jews from Kamp Vught and 600 Jews from Kamp Westerbork of British, American, and Hungarian nationality were briefly sent to Kamp Amersfoort. They were joined by contract breakers of the German Arbeitseinsatz (forced labour program), deserting Waffen SS soldiers, deserting German truck drivers of the Nationalsozialistische Kraftfahr-Korps, and lawbreaking members of the NSB (the Dutch National Socialist Movement).
This mixture of prisoners was not the only feature that determined the character of Kamp Amersfoort. The extreme cruelty of the camp command made life miserable for thousands of prisoners. Despite their relatively short stay, many prisoners died from deprivations and violence at a camp where "rumour has it that one can hear the screams of people being beaten up there for miles over the heath. It is more than a rumour."[11] The approximately 2,500 Jews and 100 Soviet-POWs were treated particularly violently. Jewish prisoners were also treated horribly by fellow prisoners.[12]
Edith and Rosa Stein, two ethnic Jewish Catholics arrested by the SS, described what it was like arriving at Amersfoort at 3:00 in the morning on August 3, 1942:
When the vans reached the camp, they emptied their passengers who were taken over by the S.S. guards. These began to drive them, cursing and swearing, beating them on their backs with their truncheons, into a hut where they were to pass the night without having had a meal.
The hut was divided into two sections, one for men, one for women. It was separated from the main lager by a barbed-wire fence. Altogether, the lager held at that moment, about three hundred men, women and children.
The beds were iron frames arranged in a double tier, without mattresses of any kind. Our prisoners threw themselves on the bare springs trying to snatch a few minutes sleep; but few slept that night, if only because the guards kept switching the lights off and on, from time to time, as a precaution against attempts to escape, which was next to impossible in any case. Their cold harsh voices filled the prisoners with anxiety about the future and, in these circumstances, it is anxiety which can turn a prison into a hell on earth.[13]
Violence by the guards was not the only thing that prisoners had to worry about. Weakened physical conditions from overwork, very little food and poor hygiene in camp made illness and disease another frightening and lonely way to die. Yehudit Harris, a young boy in Amersfoort remembers screaming from the pain as his mother washed him with snow in the winter to rid them of lice and to protect against illness. Even the mattresses that prisoners slept on were often infested with lice, diphtheria, dysentery or T.B.[14]
Amersfoort was a brutal place to be a prisoner and is summed up by Elie Cohen, who said that "transfer from Amersfoort to Westerbork was like going from hell to heaven".
Camp organizational structure
Highest responsible authority went to the Lagerkommandant (camp commander). Below him was the Lagerführer (camp leader), who actually ran the camp. His assistants were the Blockführer (barrack leaders). Virtually all prisoners were divided into work units or Kommandos. These kommandos were led by an Arbeitsführer. The lowest leadership level were the Ältesten (Elders), also called "prominents" or "foremen". These were prisoners, who in exchange for taking care of minor issues, usually theft among prisoners, received special privileges.
The first of these six companies was in charge of Kamp Amersfoort, under the command of SS-ObersturmführerWalter Heinrich. This company was split into Kamp-SS (20 men selected by Heinrich) and Guard-SS (100 men).
The first camp leader was SS-SchutzhaftlagerführerIJohann Friedrich Stöver. From January 1, 1943, the camp leader was SS-Schutzhaftlagerführer IIKarl Peter Berg. Berg was a very cruel man, who was described as a "predator who derived great pleasure from the agony of others". During roll call he loved to sneak about unnoticed behind the rows of men and catch someone in some violation, such as talking or not following orders properly. With a big grin, he would torment his victim."[15]
Another camp leader was SS-Unter-SchutzhaftlagerführerJosef Johann Kotalla,[16] a notorious sadist who often replaced Stöver during his absence. This former sales representative and repeat psychiatric patient was one of the most infamous SS guards in Amersfoort.[17] B.W. Stomps, a Resistance fighter sent to Amersfoort recalled Kotalla's actions in the Christmas season of 1944:
On 23 December, Kotalla announced a ban on parcels for three weeks, which meant no Red Cross presents for Christmas or New Year. He further canceled breakfast, lunch and dinner on Christmas Day itself, using the discovery of a smuggled letter as a pretext. And as an extra punishment on Christmas morning he kept the men standing on the parade ground, which was covered with thick snow, from their roll-call at seven till half past midday. A few days before, the geese for the guards' Christmas dinner had been on show, hanging on the barbed wire.[18]
Also notorious were Blockführer Franzka, SS-Arbeitsdienstführer Max Ritter, SS-er Hugo Hermann Wolf, among many others.
National monument in the former camp
In 1948 the camp commandant and guards of Amersfoort were tried and convicted for their crimes. Karl Peter Berg was sentenced to death and was executed in 1949. Josef Johann Kotalla was also sentenced to death but later commuted to life in prison. Along with three other prisoners he became involved in what was known as the "Breda Four", a group of prisoners whose possible release stirred up very strong feelings amongst Dutchmen. Kotalla was the only who was not eventually released from prison. He died in prison in 1979.
The NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies has many resources concerning the guards of Amersfoort and their trials. The NIOD has dossiers on the following Amersfoort guards and personnel: Berg, Brahm, Dohmen, Fernau, Helle, Kotalla, May, van der Neut, Oberle, Stöver, Voight, Westerveld and Wolf. Newspaper clippings are available for Berg, Fernau, Stöver and Helle.
Court records for the trial of these guards are also available, the following being an example of what is available:
Indictment and verbal reports made by the period of the trial against EE Alscher, K.P. Berg, E. Brahm, J.J. Kotälla, e.g. May, J. Oberle and H.H. Wolf, November 16–14 December 1948.
Graphic shorthand reports made by the period of the trial against EE Alscher, K.P. Berg, E. Brahm, J.J. Kotälla, e.g. May, J. Oberle and H.H. Wolf, 16–23 November 1948.[19]
Camp Westerbork, also known as Westerbork transit camp, was a Nazi transit camp in the province of Drenthe in the Northeastern Netherlands, during World War II. It was located in the municipality of Westerbork, current-day Midden-Drenthe. Camp Westerbork was used as a staging location for sending Jews, Sinti and Roma to concentration camps elsewhere.
Vught is a municipality and a town in the Province of North Brabant in the southern Netherlands, and lies just south of the industrial and administrative centre of 's-Hertogenbosch. Many commuters live there, and in 2004 the town was named "Best place to live" by the Dutch magazine Elsevier.
Arthur Seyss-Inquart was an Austrian Nazi politician who served as Chancellor of Austria in 1938 for two days before the Anschluss. His positions in Nazi Germany included deputy governor to Hans Frank in the General Government of Occupied Poland, and Reichskommissar for the German-occupied Netherlands. In the latter role, he shared responsibility for the deportation of Dutch Jews and the shooting of hostages.
Gross-Rosen was a network of Nazi concentration camps built and operated by Nazi Germany during World War II. The main camp was located in the German village of Gross-Rosen, now the modern-day Rogoźnica in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland, directly on the rail-line between the towns of Jawor (Jauer) and Strzegom (Striegau). Its prisoners were mostly Jews, Poles and Soviet citizens.
Herzogenbusch was a Nazi concentration camp located in Vught near the city of 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. The camp was opened in 1943 and held 31,000 prisoners. 749 prisoners died in the camp, and the others were transferred to other camps shortly before Herzogenbusch was liberated by the Allied Forces in 1944. After the war, the camp was used as a prison for Germans and for Dutch collaborators. Today there is a visitors' center which includes exhibitions and a memorial remembering the camp and its victims.
Johann Baptist Albin Rauter was a high-ranking Austrian-born SS functionary and war criminal during the Nazi era. He was the highest SS and Police Leader in the occupied Netherlands and therefore the leading security and police officer there during the period of 1940–1945. Rauter reported directly to the Nazi SS chief, Heinrich Himmler, and also to the Nazi governor of the Netherlands, Arthur Seyss-Inquart. After World War II, he was convicted in the Netherlands of crimes against humanity and executed by firing squad.
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Jack van der Geest was one of only seven people to escape from Buchenwald concentration camp. He escaped on March 3, 1943. A copy of his own death certificate appears in his book, Was God on Vacation? He was a member of the Dutch resistance movement and French Resistance, afterwards he became a translator for the 101st Airborne during World War II.
Nieuw Vosseveld is a high-security penal institution in Vught, Netherlands. It is part of the Custodial Institutions Agency of the Ministry of Justice and Security.
Selma Engel-Wijnberg was one of only two Dutch Jewish Holocaust survivors of the Sobibor extermination camp. She escaped during the 1943 uprising, hid in Poland, and survived the war. Engel-Wijnberg immigrated to the United States from Israel with her family in 1957, settling in Branford, Connecticut. She returned to Europe again only to testify against the war criminals of Sobibor. In 2010 she was in the Netherlands to receive the governmental honour of Knight in the Order of Oranje-Nassau.
Philip "Flip" Slier was a Dutch typesetter of Jewish origin who lived in Amsterdam during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. At the age of 18, he received a letter from the Jewish Council of Amsterdam—under orders from the German occupiers—that he was to report to Camp Molengoot or face arrest. He wrote 86 letters from 25 April to 14 September 1942 detailing his experiences as a forced labourer at the labour camp. Eventually he escaped to Amsterdam and lived as an onderduiker ; he frequently disguised himself and moved to different hiding locations to evade detection.
The Holocaust in the Netherlands was organized by Nazi Germany in occupied Netherlands as part of the Holocaust across Europe during the Second World War. The Nazi occupation in 1940 immediately began disrupting the norms of Dutch society, separating Dutch Jews in multiple ways from the general Dutch population. The Nazis used existing Dutch civil administration as well as the Dutch Jewish Council "as an invaluable means to their end".
Max Windmüller was a German member of the Dutch resistance. He was forced to flee from the National Socialists to the Netherlands with his parents because of their Jewish faith. He joined the Westerweel Group there and saved the lives of many Jewish children and young people. The members of the Westerweel group organized identification papers, hiding places and escape opportunities, especially for German-Jewish children and young people who had fled from Germany. In this group, Jews and members of other faiths worked together to save the Jews from persecution. Such cooperation was not a matter of course in the Netherlands. Windmüller personally saved around 100 young Jews, and the entire Westerweel group saved 393 Jews. In July 1944, the Gestapo stormed a secret meeting of the Resistance group in Paris in which Windmüller and other members of the Jewish resistance were arrested. They were then taken to Gestapo headquarters where they were interrogated and tortured. When the liberation of the camp by Allied troops was imminent, Windmüller was deported from occupied France with the last transport. On 21 April 1945, he was shot by a Schutzstaffel member.
The Network of War Collections is a partnership of over 250 archival institutions, museums, remembrance centers and libraries in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the former Dutch colonial empire, and internationally to bring together scattered collections of resources pertaining to World War II. The network is financed by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport and receives a contribution from the National Fund for Peace, Freedom and Veteran Care.
Karl Peter Berg was a German camp commander, who was sentenced to death after World War II for war crimes committed during the German occupation of the Netherlands.
Walter Heinrich was a German SS-Obersturmführer. As such, from August 1941 to 1 March 1943, he was in charge of Kamp Amersfoort concentration camp as Lagerkommandant.
Johann Friedrich (Hans) Stöver was a German camp commander.
Joseph Johann (Jupp) Kotalla was a German SS soldier who was head of the administration and de facto deputy commander of Kamp Amersfoort concentration camp during World War II. He belonged to the infamous "The Breda Four" and afterwards to the Drie van Breda, while he was serving a life sentence in Breda Prison after the war. Kotalla is the only German war criminal who died in Dutch captivity.
National Monument Camp Vught is a memorial site with a museum located in Vught, in the Dutch province of North Brabant. It commemorates the concentration camp known as Kamp Vught that was established there during World War II. The memorial was founded in 1990, with an exhibition building added in 2002. The monument is located on the northeastern tip of the former camp grounds.
References
↑ Museum Flehite. Camp Amersfoort Semi-permanent exhibition in Amersfoort occupation (1940–1945)
↑ Encountering God in the Abyss, by Constant Dölle, John Vriend, p. 133. Peeters 2002.
↑ Yad Vashem Studies By Yad ṿa-shem, rashut ha-zikaron la-Shoʼah ṿela-gevurah. Published by Yad Vashem Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, 1996; Anne Frank and after by D. van Galen Last, Rolf Wolfswinkel, p. 157. Amsterdam University Press 1996.
↑ For example, on April 19, 1944, 499 Dutchmen were sent from Amersfoort to Buchenwald. Stein, Harry. Buchenwald concentration camp 1937–1945, p. 175, edited by the Gedenkstatte Buchenwald; Three transports of Jews from Amersfoort to Mauthausen and Auschwitz via Westerbork. Netherlands Institute for War Documentation, Collection 1997.A.0117, Reel or Fiche Number: 389, Admin Number: Collection 250K, Mauthausen; Transports from July 1943 to February 1944 from Amersfoort to Natzweiler. Netherlands Institute for War Documentation, Collection: 1997.A.0117, Reel or Fiche Number: 347, Admin Number: Collection 250F, C(62)312.1 1.
↑ Etty, By Etty Hillesum, K. A. D. Smelik, Arnold Pomerans, p. 416. Owl, 2001.
↑ From the Testimony of Yehudit Harris about Life in Amersfoort, Shoah Resource Center; Overduin, Jack. Faith and Victory in Dachau, p. 94. Paideia Press 1978.
↑ Overduin, Jack. Faith and Victory in Dachau, p. 60. Paideia Press, 1978. Also see pp. 158–159 of Hitler's Bounty Hunters: The Betrayal of the Jews, by Ad Van Liempt, Berg New York City. A bizarre "trial" is described here with a camp guard Westerveld being the judge and Karl Peter Berg the defendant's lawyer. When the defendant was convicted and sentenced to death, Berg's response was "Ich bin damit einverstanden." ("I concur").
↑ Richard Hoving, De beul van Amersfoort. Biografie van Josef Kotalla (1908-1979). Uitgeverij Prometheus
↑ Graef, Robert. Bicycling to Amersfoort: A World War II Memoir, p. 134. Universe 2005.
↑ Van der Zee, Henri. The Hunger Winter, p. 125. University of Nebraska Press, 1998.
↑ NIOD. Documentation of guards and prisoners can be found in the Documentation I Collection, People Collection and newspaper clippings I Persons
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