Posting for Ria...Concentration Camp,
Westerbork, Holland
This park in now a very great open field but there were a lot baracks where there lived more than 100.000 Jewish people.
They all are gone by train where normal in are cows or pigs to Germany where they are going dead in gas chambers. The Germans have say you are getting a shower but it was gas. No one is coming back.
There is also a documentation centre in the camp but there it was too busy but in there you can seen movies how is has been in the past.
There is also a website you can also read in English and the site is http://www.kampwesterbork.nl
When the Canadian soldiers came in the camp there were 5000 Jewish people. They are not going to Germany.
But 102.000 Jewish man woman and children are gone for each one there is now a stone:(https://www.christianphotographers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fchristianphotographers.com%2Fforum%2Fjune04%2Fria_DSC00073.JPG&hash=3ad2ccb32238466918e78000e8ce81b096a0dd96)
There is an Jewish star on each stone
(https://www.christianphotographers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fchristianphotographers.com%2Fforum%2Fjune04%2Fria_stonesSymbolicForJewishPeople.jpg&hash=cd82b802e41ac1c17135f60b414666cd55f97a04)
This is the wall from the baracks
(https://www.christianphotographers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fchristianphotographers.com%2Fforum%2Fjune04%2Fria_DSC00077.JPG&hash=86f2771df452bd045382d88d4a444fda8986d814)
There are a lot of such towers there where at one time was standing a German soldier and when he saw that someone was trying to leave the park then he shot the person to death.
(https://www.christianphotographers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fchristianphotographers.com%2Fforum%2Fjune04%2Fria_DSC00080.JPG&hash=779c67173b3cfbd6f0ff8a73d8a0b52a60de71d5)
This stone is staying on the camp on the place where the trains are going.
There is standing on in Dutch this:
LAMENTATIONS 4 : 18 NIV
Men stalked us at every step,
so we could not walk in oour streets.
Our end was near, our days were numbered
for our end had come
(https://www.christianphotographers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fchristianphotographers.com%2Fforum%2Fjune04%2Fria_DSC00083.JPG&hash=3d482fe75e3dbe01d01f6a7bda06018d005a45bd)
When you walk in the camp no one is talking a lot. It is very quiet and in that moment you are thinking of the 102.000 peolpe they are now gone and never will come back.
(https://www.christianphotographers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fchristianphotographers.com%2Fforum%2Fjune04%2Fria_fromHereCanNeverMoreGoTrain.jpg&hash=ff6aa87bac9b31ab1b5b8d17f8ae1dec36d15f7e)
When this momument was put in place, there was also a representative from the Israel government.
This is the Jerusalem stone
(https://www.christianphotographers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fchristianphotographers.com%2Fforum%2Fjune04%2Fria_.jpg&hash=0a7697fce561c1737e69790c2c229dbc895842d8)
In this photo you can see that we in Holland also can go on our bikes through the camp and through all the woods.
(https://www.christianphotographers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fchristianphotographers.com%2Fforum%2Fjune04%2Fria_DSC00084.JPG&hash=17f3d2faa7e1f5cd511dfd85acca1149d414c915)
Oh, Ria... I found this so interesting and at the same time, it is so very sad.
Thanks so much for sharing this with all of us.
Ria what an awesome memorial to those who died.
Not only the jews but for also the soldiers who fought for freedom.
Blessings
Ria, my older brother was one of the Canadian soldiers who arrived....Years later, I saw some of the pictures that he brought back. My brother died some years ago, but would not talk about the war or all the things they went through. It is wonderful that Holland shows such compassion for all who died.
Thanks for showing us these pictures.
Liz
Thank you Ria for explaining these photos.
Ria, beautiful photographs. But it's so sad that there ever had to be this kind of memorial.
Thank you Ria for sharing these wonderful photos with us here on this side of the Atlantic ocean. I was only a child during WWII but I have done a lot of reading about the concentrations camps and have read Corie Ten Boom's books.
thank you Ria. that was one thing that should have never happened in history, i think that there would be a lot of germans that would be saddened by what happened. les
Thank you for these photos and your comments, Ria. Such a sad time in history, but it doesn't seem that some people learned the lesson. Today, our President was in Italy to commorate D-Day from WWII, and the people were shouting, protesting and throwing rocks. But the president of Italy made a nice speech about how many Americans fought for the freedom of Italy, lost their lives and are buried in Italian soil.
These things make me long for our home in heaven! :'(
Sad for the reason for this memorial but makes my heart smile to think that people do have compassion for lost lives.