The Dutch prison-camps during WWII; part 3: Camp Amersfoort.

This is a series of five stories about the camps that were in use, by the Nazi occupiers during the war as prison- or concentration camps, in the Netherlands.

Aerial photograph of Camp Amersfoort 1944

Camp Schoorl, was in use as a prison-camp from June 1940 until the end of October 1941.

Camp Erika, near Ommen, was in use as a prison-camp from June 19 1941 until April 11 1945.

Camp Amersfoort, was in use as a prison-camp from August 18 1941 until April 19 1945.

Camp Vught, was in use as a prison-camp from January 1943 until September 1944.

Camp Westerbork, was in use as a prison-camp from July 1 1942 until April 12 1945.

Mural of the PDA 1945

The third camp that was put to use as a prison-camp by the German occupiers in WWII, was Camp Amersfoort. Officially known as Polizeiliches Durchgangslager Amersfoort (PDA). Before that it was one of the many camps in use by the Dutch army after the mobilization in 1939. The first prisoners arrived here from Camp Schoorl on the 18^th of August 1941. The camp was situated at the south side of the city of Amersfoort, near Leusden, some 55 km south-east of Amsterdam.

Guards' tower just outside the camps' fences

The first group of prisoners were also used as 'training material' for the SS-guards. The guards of Camp Amersfoort were separated into 2 groups, the guards that worked inside the camp, Camp-SS, and the group that worked outside the camp, Wachbattalion-SS. The guards that worked inside the camp were mostly Germans that were living in the Netherlands for some time or were even born here, Volksdeutschen or Auslandsdeutschen. Later on extra personnel was added from German veterans.

The group of guards that worked mostly outside the camp was later on formed into the SS Wachbattalion Nord-West, in which a lot of Dutch SS-men worked. They had their main camp in a nearby former Dutch army-camp. Two companies of the SS Wachbattalion Nord-West worked at Camp Amersfoort, two companies at Camp Vught, one company at the hostage-camp Sint Michielsgestel and one at the hostage-camp Haaren. The first commander of the outside guards was Alphons Brendel, who soon became the commander of the SS-Schule Avegoor. After him Paul Anton Helle became commander of the SS Wachbattalion Nord-West.

SS guards of Camp Amersfoort: third left Stöver, far right K.P. Berg

The commander (Lagerführer) of Camp Amersfoort in the first period was Walter Heinrich, his assistant (Schutzhaftlagerführer) was Johann Friedrich Stöver, former commander of Camp Schoorl. Also Karl Peter Berg came from Camp Schoorl to PDA. At the same time 2 SS-officers from the concentration-camp Dachau came over to teach the SS at Amersfoort how to deal with their prisoners. These were officers Petri and Berg.

Prisoners in the streets of Amersfoort, guarded by SS soldiers

In 1943 the camp was closed down for a short period of time. In the first period from August 18^th 1941 until March 8^th 1943, a total of 8522 (about 850 of them were Jewish) prisoners passed through Camp Amersfoort, 310 prisoners were killed. In the second period from May 17^th 1943 until April 19^th 1945 some 26700 (about 700 Jewish) prisoners stayed at the PDA, 257 of them were killed in this period.

About 77 men out of the 567 that were killed at the PDA were Jewish. Most of the Jewish prisoners that survived the PDA were later deported to Westerbork.

Prisoners going outside the camp to work

Among the prisoners in Camp Amersfoort was also a group of 101 prisoners of war from the Russian army, most of them were actually not Russians but they came from Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. 77 of them were shot by a firing squad on the 9^th of April 1942, the rest of them had been shot in the previous months, on a nearby shooting range near Leusden or had died of malnutrition and exhaustion. The first one of them died upon arrival at the train-station of Amersfoort on the 27^th of August 1941.

They were imprisoned in a separate enclosure of barbed wire in the center of the camp for 3 days and nights. They had to dress themselves in rags which were provided by the SS guards as clothing. A German film-crew arrived to film these 'Untermenschen' as they received their first food in days in the form of bread which was thrown over the barbed wire into the crowd. The Germans expected a big fight for the food but the 'Russians' shared the supplied bread and cigarettes among themselves in an orderly manner. Leaving the SS guards disappointed, the film-crew left with unusable shots.

The 'Rose Garden'

The Rose Garden was a separated strip, with barbed wire, of the camp, next to the grounds where the roll-calls were held, that was used to punish prisoners. Prisoners sentenced to the Rose Garden had to stand there for 24 or 48 hours without moving, any drink or food.

Most of the prisoners that died at the PDA were killed by a firing squad. Among them a lot of members of the various resistance groups that were active during the war. Some were killed as a reprisal for attacks committed by the Dutch resistance.

One of the people killed by firing squad at the PDA was Henk Sneevliet, a Dutch revolutionary socialist. At first a convinced communist but after Stalin came to power in the Soviet Union he left the Communist party to start his own RSAP. He and 7 of his companions were shot on the 13^th of April 1942. They were among the first people to resist the German occupiers.

15 men were shot on the 16^th of October 1942 as a reprisal for actions by the Dutch resistance in the east of the Netherlands.

The first person that died at the PDA was Alexander Mogendorff, a Dutch Jew. He died on the 19^th of November 1941, just 2 months after the first prisoners arrived at the camp. He was prisoner no. 70.

Priests were also among the prisoners at Amersfoort. The most famous of them is Titus Brandsma. He always opposed the National Socialist Movement and continued his opposition even after the German occupation. In January 1942 he was arrested and through Amersfoort he arrived on the 19^th of June 1942 at the concentration-camp Dachau. On the 26^th of July 1942 he died by a lethal injection which was given him by the camp doctor.

Kotälla after his arrest

One of the most notorious SS-officers of PDA Amersfoort was Joseph Kotälla. He was appointed in September 1942 by Karl Peter Berg, the substitute of Stöver. After the war he was sentenced to death, which was changed in 1951 to life imprisonment. He died in prison in 1979.

He was famous for his so-called 'Kotälla-kick', a very hard kick in the testicles with his army-boot. He also took part in many of the firing squads and he took a special interest in Jewish prisoners and priests, which he physically abused most frequently and fanatically.

Karl Peter Berg and SS-guard Westerveld entering the camp again after their arrest in 1945

Circumstances improved somewhat in the second half of 1943 when the Red Cross was allowed to provide packages to the prisoners with extra food, clothing and other supplies.

At the end of the war, on the 19^th of April 1945 the camp was handed over to the Red Cross, with about 500 prisoners. British troops entered the camp on the 7^th of May 1945, the remaining prisoners could finally go home.

Prisoners waiting to go home after the British troops entered the camp

 After the war Camp Amersfoort was used as one of the many camps to imprison collaborators, German Nazi's, war criminals , etc.

Sources:

• Book: Kamp Amersfoort, by Geraldien von Frijtag Drabbe Künzel; 4^th edition 2005
• Web: www.kamp-amersfoort.nl; new website of National Monument Kamp Amersfoort, but I like the old one more, it has better historic and more detailed information; http://kampamersfoort.nl/zhi.html (old site)
• Web: http://www.communityjoodsmonument.nl/; gives information about all Dutch Jewish victims of the holocaust
• Web: http://www.beeldbankwo2.nl; Niod-website with pictures related to WWII
• Web: http://kampamersfoort.nl/zfonmq.html; list of all the people that died at Camp Amersfoort
• Web: http://www.gahetna.nl/collectie/afbeeldingen/fotocollectie; searchable database of photographs of the National Archives in The Hague
• Web: http://www.kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.de/; website of the concentrationcamp at Dachau
• Web: http://www.waffen-ss.nl/wachbat.php/: webpage about the SS Wachbatalion Nord-West, also available in English at http://www.waffen-ss.nl/wachbat-e.php
• Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amersfoort_concentration_camp; wikipedia is always a good source of information and most of it is also available in English.