Amersfoort transit camp
The Amersfoort transit camp , also known as de Boskamp ( the forest camp ), served as a concentration camp for the German occupying forces in the Netherlands from August 18, 1941 during World War II .
Before the German occupation , it was built in 1939 as a barracks for the Dutch military, which was used for the expansion of the Grebbe line and for defense structures around Amersfoort. Under German occupation it served as an internment camp for “hostages” as well as a “ protective custody camp ”, “youth transit camp” and as a “ work education camp ” of the SS . The prisoners were used to clear the forest and to do sawing work in the vicinity of the camp. Many Jewish prisoners were transported to the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, to the labor education camps in Essen, to the Hermann Göring factories, and to other concentration camps in Germany. Amersfoort was also the place of execution. By the time the camp was handed over to the Dutch Red Cross on April 20, 1945, 32,500 men had been admitted. At times, the camp also served as a "reception center" for women and children in prison with American citizenship .
After the war, the National Socialist Karl Friedrich Titho was sentenced to six years in prison for the shootings in Amersfoort in the Netherlands, while his superior Erich Deppner was acquitted in Germany. The SS- Schutzhaftlagerführer Hans Stöver was sentenced in 1948 to life imprisonment. The SS-Schutzhaftlagerführer Karl Peter Berg was sentenced to death and executed in 1949. The SS detention camp leader Jupp Kotalla was also sentenced to death, but this sentence was later commuted to life . In 1953, a national memorial was inaugurated at the end of the SS shooting range, which also served as the site of numerous executions. Since then, the “prisoner in front of the firing squad” has been remembering the inmates of the PDA. A visitor center and a memorial area on part of the former camp grounds complete the memorial.
Web links
National Monument Kamp Amersfoort at www.gedenken-in-benelux.de
Coordinates: 52 ° 7 '58 " N , 5 ° 21' 57" E