Amsterdam Part Two - Westerbork
Posted by John Naples-Campbell on November 21st, 2008
Evening,
well i have finally just arrived home and felt I need to ‘pen’ down some thoughts on the rest of my journey. Hope you can bare with me but I want to share with you this experience and realise I might not get the chance to do so at school.
On the Thursday we were up early to go to Camp Westerbork. The past two days we’ve had excellent weather so I found it unusal that it was now raining heavyily and windy.
Westerbork Camp is the transit Concentration Camp which is found at the border of Holland and housed 107,000 Jews, Romas and Freedom Fighters before they were taken to either Auschwitz, Sobibor or Thereisienstand.
The journey took almost 3 hours and my first impression was how isolated and hidden the camp was to the outside world.
The camp was demolished in the 1970s and now all that remains is the vistor centre, the iron gates and part of the rail road.
The visitor centre was amazing with some great visual aids that ranged from suitcases with belongings,photos, clothes, a replica barrack etc. This really put into context the belief that they ‘The Jews’ were going to treated fairly, they packed their best items or favourite belongings. It was sad to look at the photos and wonder what these people could have added to the world.
My only problem with the centre was that most of the documentation relating to visual aids were in Dutch and therefore I couldn’t connect with them. I asked at reception why this was the case and they said they don’t get many English speaking tourists coming to the camp and is mainly used by Dutch nationals but they are wanting to change this in the future.
During a lecture about the camp we were introduced to one of the survivors of the camp Shule and we were told about his experience of the camp and his journey East to Aushwitz. This brought home that even though Anne Frank has become an ‘icon’, so to speak, there are another 6 million stories out there.
The camp is based about a mile from the centre and as we approached the camp, by bus, the rain stopped and we were led through the gates and onto the vast waste ground that was the camp.
When i say vast i do mean vast, the camp was huge and this was really too much to take in at first; how could this place be so hidden from the outside world?!
We were taken to a mound that represented one of the barracks where they now have a concrete corner representing the width and height of the barrack. We were told about the conditions of the camp and then led to the punishment barracks where the most famous inmate stayed. Anne Frank stayed in the camp for just over a month and was placed on the 92nd train out of the camp to Aushwitz, a total of 93 trains left Westerbork. I stood thinking that I have taken the same journey as Anne did in 1944; from her house yesterday to the camp today. The realisation came too much and i became emotional.
There are two monuments at the camp to remember those that died.
We were taken to the first and told about Sonya who managed to survive the war and escaped from the same train that Anne was on by jumping from the wagon, sadly her friend who also tried died. Sonya was hidden by two farmers.
The train track represents those who diedby being deported to the East. There are 93 tracks attached to the line, representing the 93 trains that left from the camp full of prisoners every Tuesday. 4 tracks unattached to the line represented the other four camps in Holland which held people and the broken tracks were aimed towards the sky to show the road to heaven.
The second monument was just breathtaking and i’m still thinking about it constantly. This monument was made up of 102,000 stones (each representig those who died). The stone either had a star to represent a Jew, a flame to represent a Roma or was left plain to show the freedom Fighters who were shot dead in the forrest that was ahead of us. The stones were set out to show a map of Holland and where each victim came from.
The tour guide spoke of the physiological the Nazis played with the prisioners to make them think they didn’t want them dead and as I looked at the group we were all taken aback by what we were told. I’m emotional writing this so won’t go into detail.
As we returned to the bus the heavens opened again and the rain started and we made our way back to Amsterdam.
That night I just thought of the journey I have taken both personally and physically. The fact that I have taken the same journey as Anne did and many others has made me more determined that Holocaust eduaction is important to our future.