Westerbork Camp

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Located in the north-east of the Netherlands, the Westerbork camp was used during the Nazi occupation as an assembly and transit camp for Jewish, Sinti and Roma deportees. From October 1942 onwards, it held around 10,000 inmates, prior to their deportation to extermination camps in occupied Poland.

Blacknight, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A place of suffering and waiting

107,000 people passed through Westerbork before being sent to Auschwitz, Sobibor and other death camps. Among them were such emblematic figures as Anne Frank, Etty Hillesum and Settela Steinbach. The camp was marked by omnipresent fear, mud, disease and unbearable anguish, described in the testimonies of survivors.

A duty to remember

Today, the Westerbork Camp Memorial recalls the horror of this period and honors the memory of the victims. Broken rails symbolize the fate of those who never returned.