Kamp Amersfoort - Amersfoort - the Netherlands - WWII Prisoner of War Camps on Waymarking.com

HISTORY OF KAMP AMERSFOORT

1939-1941: BARAK KAMP APPELWEG

After the First World War, Europe was marked by social unrest. Due to the tensions surrounding Nazi Germany, the general mobilization of the Dutch army was called for on 28 August 1939. Several camps arose near the garrison town of Amersfoort: Kamp Zonnebloemstraat, Kamp Bokkeduinen, Kamp Amsvorde, Kamp Waterloo, Kamp Heihuis and Kamp Austerlitz. On the southern edge of Amersfoort, in the wooded territory of the municipality of Leusden and on the corner of Laan 1914 and Appelweg, a camp with six wooden barracks, including a canteen and an office, was set up on a military sports field. It was intended to house several hundred soldiers who built the Grebbe Linie and practiced on the adjacent Leusderheide: Barakkenkamp Appelweg.

After the surrender of the Dutch army on 15 May 1940, the Kamp on the Appelweg was used as a convalescent home for German soldiers after frontline service and at the end of 1940 as a regular army camp. The adjacent Kamp Amsvorde became the training center for the SS-Wachkommando Nord-West in 1941, where Germans living in the Netherlands and later Dutch SS men were trained as the security units of airfields and prison camps such as the adjacent Kamp Amersfoort. Due to the increasing number of detainees suspected of resistance activities, the Sicherheitspolizei was looking for a more central location than Kamp Schoorl. The choice fell on the Barakkenkamp Appelweg in Leusden. The existing six barracks would serve as residences for guards and the six barracks of Kamp Heihuis were demolished and rebuilt as the southern part with prisoner barracks. About 120 men were deployed for this as part of their six-week SS training. Twenty of them were subsequently appointed by camp commander Walter Heinrich as guards of Kamp Amersfoort. On August 18, 1941, the first group of 195 prisoners from Kamp Schoorl arrived in the Polizeiliches Durchgangslager Amersfoort.

PDA 1941-43

Upon entering the Polizeiliches Durchgangslager Amersfoort (P.D.A.), the prisoners were taken from their personal belongings, had their hair removed, a prisoner number assigned and a set of camp clothes handed out. That was an old uniform of Dutch or German army parts and wooden clogs. The reason for confinement was indicated with a colored piece of cloth on the clothing. After that they were at the mercy of the strict regime and the whims of the SS guards.

The camp consisted of an SS section for the guards, with sleeping barracks, offices, garages and warehouses. An internal gate then led to the prisoner's area. From the end of 1941, a kitchen, the so-called Bekleidungskammer, the so-called Werkstätten, six stone barracks and the infamous 'Rose Garden' were added: a fenced place where prisoners had to be punished for hours, sometimes for days. The dusty, central square served as a roll call place, where pointless exercises often had to be performed for hours.

From the memoirs and letters of prisoners of Kamp Amersfoort from this period, the impotent anger about the inhumane living conditions, the overwhelming hunger, the inadequate clothing and heating, the strict censorship of outgoing letters, the social relations and the mutual betrayal between different groups of prisoners. There were among others resistance fighters, communists, hostages, (alleged) criminals such as black dealers, 271 American citizens and 123 Jehovah's witnesses. In particular, the approximately 2,500 Jews and 100 Soviet prisoners of war were treated particularly violently. Playing prisoners against each other also led to a culture of haggling and arranging food or services, which inmates call 'organizing'.

The prisoners were divided into different work teams, the so-called Kommandos. Most shifts had to do physically demanding work; for example, the 320 meter long Shooting Range was constructed by hand and the large garbage dump was further excavated. The camp commander of Kamp Amersfoort was Walter Heinrich, an apparently correct young man in his dealings, but responsible for various atrocities. Contagious diseases such as dysentery regularly broke out in the camp.

In this first phase of the camp, many were already sent to other camps, such as Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Natzweiler, Neuengamme and Sachsenhausen. In March 1943 the camp was temporarily closed for a new extension with seven barracks; up to that time, more than 8,500 people have been imprisoned.

EPG 1943-45
At the reopening in May 1943, Kamp Amersfoort was officially called Erweitertes Polizeigefängnis Amersfoort. At the same time, the Nazis introduced compulsory forced labor for the German war industry, which first applied to Dutch men between the ages of 18 and 35: the Arbeitseinsatz. The camp played a central role as a collection and transit camp.

The massive ignoring of calls led to manhunts for the evaders while tens of thousands of Dutch men were arrested in raids. Many ended up in the German war industry via Kamp Amersfoort; In mid-1944 a separate fence was placed in the prisoners' area to regulate the flow of forced labourers. In one day, 3,566 prisoners were recorded.

In total, more than 800 transports were organized from Kamp Amersfoort to other camps, of which 200 of 10 men or more. For example, on September 26, 1944, a group of more than 1,000 prisoners from Kamp Amersfoort was sent to Zwolle to build defenses at the IJssel. They were housed in the Buitensociëteit, with the only facilities being straw on the ground, three toilets and three water taps. At the initiative of the citizens of Zwolle, the prisoners were provided with food for weeks. On October 11, 1944, the largest transport took place, more than 1,400 Dutch men to Neuengamme. Among them were 601 men from Putten, arrested after a raid as reprisal for an attack on German officers. Only 48 of them would eventually return to their village in the Veluwe. The chaotic and brutal eviction of Neuengamme led to the worst shipping disaster of all time, the Cap Arcona, in which at least 300 Dutch prisoners were killed.

During these two years Karl Berg was the commander of Camp Amersfoort. The no less infamous Joseph Kotalla acted as his deputy and seriously injured 100 prisoners at the 1945 New Year's roll call. Thanks to the efforts of a few wealthy ladies and the representative of the Red Cross, Loes van Overeem, it was slowly possible to improve the food supply and living conditions in Kamp Amersfoort. On June 30, 1944, trucks with food and medicine arrived for the first time. Van Overeem's perseverance was rewarded and on April 19, 1945 she was handed over the management of Kamp Amersfoort. The Nazi guards destroyed the records, fled to The Hague taking dozens of hostages with them and on 7 May 1945 a British reconnaissance unit from the 49th Infantry Division entered the camp.
Almost nothing of Kamp Amersfoort remained. There is a walking route which shows some of the remains, such as the shooting range where many of the prisoners were shot, an original watchtower, trenches and foundations for anti-aircraft guns.
(Source text: Internetsite Kamp Amersfoort).

Visit Instructions:
Please post an origional photo of the site. New features not show in the other find logs are encouraged. Feel free to add any information not provided in the waymark listing. If you or your family has any personal knowledge of the site, please feel free to share.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   04/30/2023 MaaBo visited it 02/15/2023 Axel-F visited it 07/07/2022 eilers1 visited it

View all visits/logs