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Vught (Dutch pronunciation: [vʏxt] ) 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 . [5]
The first mention of Vught in the historical record dates to the eleventh century. By the fourteenth century, the Teutonic Order had acquired the parish and set up a commandery across from the Saint Lambert Church. In 1328, the residents of Vught were granted the right of municipality by the Duke of Brabant.
During the Eighty Years War Vught was the site of struggles between Catholic interests and the troops of William of Orange. In 1629 the Saint Lambert Church became a Reformed Protestant church, after the troops of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, were victorious in 's-Hertogenbosch.
Vught was the site of a transit/concentration camp (Herzogenbusch) built by Nazi Germany during its occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. It was part of Camp Herzogenbusch, but usually better known as "Kamp Vught". The camp held male and female prisoners, many of them Jewish and political activists, captured in Belgium and the Netherlands. The guards included SS men and a few SS women, headed by Oberaufseherin Margarete Gallinat. The SS initially used it as a transit camp to gather mostly Jewish prisoners for classification and transportation to camps in Poland and other areas.
For supporting another female prisoner, a group of 74 women were punished by being placed in a cell barely nine square meters and held there for over fourteen hours. Ten of the women died, and several suffered permanent physical or mental damage. The camp commander responsible was demoted by Himmler to the regular rank of soldier and sent to the Hungarian front, where he died in 1945.
Dutch underground members Corrie and Betsie ten Boom were held at Vught in 1944, before being sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp. Vught was also a transition camp for many of the female laborers at the Agfa Kamerawerke in München-Giesing, where they built ignition and camera devices. Poncke Princen, who would later become known for going over to the Indonesian guerrillas opposing Dutch rule, was imprisoned at Vught for his anti-Nazi activities.
Vught was liberated by the Canadians at the end of the war, but only after German guards killed several hundred prisoners held there, mainly by firing squad.
After World War II, the camp was first used as a prison for Germans and collaborators. Some of the camp has been preserved as a national monument related to the Nazi occupation during World War II.
The barracks of Camp Vught were later adapted into a number of home units to house Indonesian Moluccan exiles, former soldiers of the Netherlands armed forces and their families who were transferred to the Netherlands after Indonesian independence.
From 1953, part of the former detention camp was developed as a juvenile prison called Nieuw Vosseveld.' [6] Today, as PI Vught, it is a high-security prison with 15 separate units and up to 750 prisoners. [7] Amongst those imprisoned there are:
On 2 April 2007 Roderick van de Mortel (VVD) was appointed mayor of Vught. The aldermen appointed after the 2022 local elections were Mark du Maine (VVD), Yvonne Vos (CDA) J.H.L. den Otter (Gemeentebelangen) and N. de Lange (PvdA-GroenLinks). [8]
Just outside the town border lies the lake IJzeren Man (literally 'Iron Man'). It was named after the machine that dug it in the years 1890 to 1915 for sand used as fill for the expansion of the nearby city of 's-Hertogenbosch. The lake is about 2 kilometers long, has a small island and is now mainly used for recreation.
Maurick Castle dates back to the 13th century. In 1629 it was occupied by Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange as his headquarters for his siege of 's-Hertogenbosch. The castle now houses a restaurant.
Vught is home to the Bredero barracks, which houses the Ministry of Defence's CBRN defense training center. [9]
After the village of Helvoirt and surroundings had been transferred from the former municipality of Haaren to Vught in 2021, the eastern part of the Loonse en Drunense Duinen national park became part of the municipality.
Ewald Marggraff was a well-to-do nobleman who lived in Vught. A hermit, he acquired a large amount of land and several buildings. He had frequent disputes with the local authorities, mostly over his decision to let his properties deteriorate. This enabled his land to return to natural habitat, with animal species living there that had disappeared elsewhere. On 7 December 2003 Marggraff's manor (Zionsburg) burned down; his body was later found inside.
Marggraff's surviving sisters founded a non-profit corporation, Marggraff stichting, to take over and manage their late brother's extensive landholdings, providing public access to the forests, and rebuilding Zionsburg. [10]
Vught has a railway station with connections to Amsterdam/Utrecht via 's-Hertogenbosch, Maastricht via Eindhoven, Tilburg and Nijmegen. Highway 2 / E25 and Highway 65 / N93 intersect at Vught. Also two Arriva buslines connecting Vught to the Jeroen Bosch Hospital, school district and central station, all located in neighbouring Den Bosch.
's-Hertogenbosch, colloquially known as Den Bosch, is a city and municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 160,783. It is the capital of the province of North Brabant and its fourth largest city by population. The city is south of the Maas river and near the Waal.
North Brabant, also unofficially called Brabant, is a province in the south of the Netherlands. It borders the provinces of South Holland and Gelderland to the north, Limburg to the east, Zeeland to the west, and the Flemish provinces of Antwerp and Limburg to the south. The northern border follows the Meuse westward to its mouth in the Hollands Diep strait, part of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. North Brabant had a population of about 2,626,000 as of January 2023. Major cities in North Brabant are Eindhoven, Tilburg, Breda, its provincial capital 's-Hertogenbosch, and Helmond
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.
Amersfoort is a city and municipality in the province of Utrecht, Netherlands. As of 31 January 2023, the municipality had a population of 160,902, making it the second-largest of the province and fifteenth-largest of the country. Amersfoort is also one of the largest Dutch railway junctions with its three stations—Amersfoort Centraal, Schothorst and Vathorst—due to its location on two of the Netherlands' main east to west and north to south railway lines. The city was used during the 1928 Summer Olympics as a venue for the modern pentathlon events. Amersfoort marked its 750th anniversary as a city in 2009.
Roosendaal is both a city and a municipality in the southern Netherlands, in the province of North Brabant.
Haaren is a town and former municipality in the southern Netherlands, in the province of North Brabant.
Sint-Michielsgestel is a municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands. It is named for the village of Sint-Michielsgestel located within its boundaries.
Drechterland is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland and the region of West-Frisia. The municipality was formed in 1979, in a merger of the former municipalities of Hoogkarspel, Westwoud and Oosterblokker. Its original name, Bangert, was changed to "Drechterland" in 1980. In 2006, the former municipality of Venhuizen was added to Drechterland.
Kamp 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. 37,000 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.
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.
Helvoirt is a village and part of the municipality of Vught, Netherlands.
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.
Adrienne Minette (Mies) Boissevain-van Lennep was a Dutch feminist who was active in the Resistance before being arrested by the Nazis and sent to the Herzogenbusch concentration camp. After the war, she promoted the idea of the national liberation skirt, and some of these unusual skirts are now in Dutch museums.
Nieuw Vosseveld is a prison in Vught, Netherlands, part of the Custodial Institutions Agency of the Ministry of Justice and Security within the Dutch criminal justice system. Penitentiaire Inrichting Vught is now the general term used instead of Nieuw Vosseveld. Part of Nieuw Vosseveld is a maximum security prison; it holds some of Europe's most dangerous criminals, including Hüseyin Baybaşin, Mohammed Bouyeri and Ridouan Taghi.
The following is a timeline of the history of the municipality of 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
Franciscus Max "Franc" Weerwind is a Dutch politician of Democrats 66 (D66) who served as minister for legal protection in the cabinet of Prime Minister Mark Rutte from January 2022 until July 2024.
Geertruida Catharina Theresia Maria "Truus" Smulders-Beliën was a Dutch politician and teacher who was the mayor of Oost-, West- en Middelbeers in North Brabant from 1946 to 1966. The first female mayor in the Netherlands, she succeeded her husband Jan Smulders after he was executed by Nazi soldiers.
Helena Theodora Kuipers-Rietberg was a Dutch resistance member who played an important role during World War II, when she was one of the driving forces of a national underground organization that supported those who were hiding from the German occupying forces. She was known as "Tante Riek", or "Aunt Riek".
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Johann Friedrich (Hans) Stöver was a German camp commander.
Bagira Systems and Van Halteren Defence have jointly been awarded a contract by the Netherlands Ministry of Defence for the simulator for its national chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) training centre at Bredero barracks in Vught.