Westerbork

Geschiedenis

The Westerbork transit camp was a World War II Nazi refugee, detention and transit camp in Hooghalen, ten kilometres north of Westerbork, in the northeastern Netherlands. Its function during the Second World War was to assemble Romani and Dutch Jews for transport to Nazi extermination camps and other concentration camps.Establishment and history of the campOpening of the Central Refugee CampSince the establishment of the National Socialist (Nazi) regime in Germany in 1933, the Netherlands had been managing a steady flow of Jewish refugees across its border with Germany. On 15 December 1938, the Dutch government closed its border to refugees; there had been a substantial increase in the refugee flow from Germany following the Kristallnacht pogrom there on 9–10 November. In 1939, the Dutch government erected a Central Refugee Camp (Dutch: Centraal Vluchtelingenkamp) near Westerbork. The Committee for Jewish Refugees (Dutch: Comité voor Joodsche Vluchtelingen), which had been managing the support of the German refugees since 1933, had been required to underwrite the Camp's expenses with a one million guilder fund. The first 22 refugees took up residence at the Camp in October 1939.