A Somber Begining

This year's journey began with a stop over in Amsterdam. I decided this year to conduct research in The Netherlands. One form of dramaturgical research involves visiting the actual locations referred to in dramatic works. A large portion of my research involves the years preceding and immediately following the Second World War. I decided this year to visit the small village of Vught in the south of The Netherlands. The government of The Netherlands maintains the national monument of Concentration Camp Vught. This camp was the only camp maintained by the National Socialist Party (NAZI) government located outside of Germany, in Western Europe. Visiting a place such as Camp Vught is a difficult experience but something that is so important that all school aged children in The Netherlands visit the camp. Memory of the horrors of the holocaust must be preserved in our collective memory to prevent further atrocities. The camp is located in a park like setting, one can stand outside the camp and hear birds singing. Curiously enough, when you are inside the camp not a sound can be heard. The camp is surrounded by an odd absence of any sounds. The camp has been painstakingly reconstructed with the crematorium building remaining from the original camp. Several original gates remain as well as the barbed wire fences.

Train Station

Guard Tower

Classification Badges

Children's Memorial

I was holding myself together fairly well as I walked about the camp. I was reduced to tears by the Children's Memorial. The students that visit here bring new toys and flowers and leave them for the children that died in the holocaust.

Children's Transports

Of the 12,000 Jews transported to the east to their death, two Children's Transports are recorded from Camp Vught. On June 6th and June 7th 1943 a total of 1,269 Jewish children were transported from Camp Vught, to Westerbork and then on to the German Death Camp, Sobibor, located in German occupied Poland. The children were gassed shortly after their arrival at Sobibor.

The names of the children are cut into the metal of the Children's Memorial

This is a memorial to a 17 year old man that became involved in the Dutch Underground. His involvement resulted in the death of a German Soldier. He was found guilty by the Germans but could not be put to death due to his age and Dutch law. The Germans waited two years until he reached the ag of 18 and then executed him. This is his memorial at the camp.






This plaque is in remembrance of the night of January 15th 1944, also known as the Bunker Tragedy. When one of the women from Barracks 23B was imprisoned in "The Bunker" some of the other women protested. Commandant Grunewald ordered 74 women to be confined in cell 115 as punishment for the protest. This cell had an area of 97 square feet .When the women were released the next morning, 10 of the women had died from suffocation. This plaque lists their names.

Sinks In The Barracks

Memorial Of The Names

This is an entirely white room that is about 2 stories high. The walls of this room contain plaques with the names of every person that died at the camp. Other than the memorial to the young man described above, there is nothing else in the room. What is amazing is the feeling of crowding that one feels in this room. A room filled with dead souls. I had to leave this room and the crushing weight that it contains.

Dining Area In The Barracks

Gravestones

The Crematoria Oven

Autopsy Table

Train to Vught

The construction of Konzentrationslager Herzogenbusch, as Camp Vught was offically known, began in 1942 and was not finished at the end of 1942 when the first famished and beaten prisoners arrived. Several hundred died in the first few months due to horrid conditions. Approximately 31,000 persons were imprisoned at the camp between January 1943 and September 1944. The camp held 12,000 Jews and other political prisoners, resistance fighters, homosexuals, Sinti and Roma gypsies. approximately 750 children, women, and men died of sickness, hunger, and abuse. Many others were executed.