Choices and chance, traumas and taboos, it's all here at Camp Vught National Memorial. Explore the museum, memorials, watchtowers, and barracks of a former SS concentration camp in the Netherlands.
The memorial's permanent exhibition, 32,000 Stories and Seven Seasons, chronicles the seven seasons that passed while the camp was open between 1943 and 1944. The newly extended museum features personal stories from prisoners, the residents of Vught, and even SS guards.
Camp Vught has a dark and disturbing history to explore. The concentration camp was built between 1943 and 1944 and held 32,000 prisoners. It was the only concentration camp run directly by the SS in Western Europe, outside of Nazi Germany.
Today it's both a museum and a memorial center.
You can explore the grounds at your own pace. There are various buildings and outdoor areas that will teach you about the realities that the prisoners detained here encountered. The watchtowers have been reconstructed, one barrack rebuilt at half its original size, and a model made of natural stone shows the overall layout of the camp.
There are dedicated areas to give pause and remember those who perished – a comment wall, a memorial wall, and a Children's Memorial. Other parts of the museum also lend themselves quite naturally to moments of introspection and empathy.
The visit will be solemn but will greatly add to your knowledge about the dark events of WWII.
Amsterdam