Tuesday 28 May 2019

Transfered

After "Crazy Tuesday" (Sept. 5th, 1944 when false rumors of imminent Allied victory spread throughout the country) Kamp Vught was emptied of all prisoners, who were transfered out, many to Sachsenhausen, near Berlin, Germany. My grandfather was transfered there and died four months later of dysentery. 


Transfered out in open train cars

Execution

Where many were executed by firing squad.
The prisoner in the camp would hear the volleys of shots.
Next....

In memory of

Notes in memory of

The note I left in memory of my grandfather:
"In memory of my grandfather Taeke van Popta
who was transfered from here to his death in Sachsenhausen"
Next....

Christians and Jews

Ashes buried here

Christians and Jews


Next....

Crematorium

People who died of sickness or abuse, or were executed, were burned here.

Portable oven

Cart used in transporting dead bodies to oven

Permanent oven
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Washroom

Large sink for washing up
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Barbed wire

The camp was encircled by barbed wire, electric wire, a water-filled ditch, and guard towers.



Original concrete posts




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Mess hall


They burned what they could to generate some heat

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Bunk houses

Each bunk house was designed for 240 men, but often more were housed in them. The top bunk went to the strongest.




Next...

Mail

Prisoners could send and receive mail. This is the original post office.


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Uniform

All individuality was stripped away and all prisoners were issued a striped uniform and (ill-fitting) clogs.

  



Next....

Kamp Vught

On May 19th, 1944, my grandfather, a political prisoner, was transported to Kamp Vught, a Nazi concentration camp near Den Bosch in the south of the Netherlands where Jews and political prisoners were held. It was a brutal place. All prisoners were stripped of most things of value, including watches; there were no clocks in the camp, and yet one was punished if he showed up late for roll call or work. There were scores, possibly hundreds, of rules that one had to remember and keep. Of course this was impossible, and yet a prisoner would be severely beaten if he broke a rule. In September of 1944 my grandfather was shipped out to concentration camp Sachsenhausen near Berlin, Germany, where he died on January 21, 1945.

In May of 2019 (75 years later) I had occasion to visit Vught. It was a moving and sobering experience. Here are my photos (see below for "next").