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Directions to Camp Amersfoort

h 20 cm x w 99 cm
1941-1945

It was a simple black & white signboard alongside the road with a few abbreviated German words. Nothing more. But for the thousands of prisoners who saw this board on their way to Polizeiliches Durchgangslager (Police Transit Camp) Amersfoort, it was their first glimpse of an unknown future.

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On 11 October 1944, more than 1,400 prisoners were marched from Camp Amersfoort through the middle of downtown to the train station. There they were put on transports headed for the Neuengamme Concentration Camp in Germany (Source: Image Bank WW2 – NIOD).
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They had to walk from the main train station in Amersfoort to the outskirts of the city, where a complex of barracks called Camp Amersfoort was located from 1941 to 1945. The camp was small at first. The guards were cruel and uncertainty ruled. During the course of the war, the number of prisoners increased and in the spring of 1943 the camp was expanded. Many more prisoners could be housed after this, but neglect, hunger, abuse and murder remained the order of the day. On 19 April 1945, the camp was transferred to the Red Cross. More than 35,000 prisoners were interned in Camp Amersfoort for a brief or extended period of time.