About this website

Westerbork Memorial is a site of remembrance, education and reflection. We focus on the complex and layered history of the site and connect it to the present. The emphasis is on the story of the Holocaust, but we elaborate on the post-war usage of the site as well. Personal stories are at the forefront of our work and activities.

On this website, you can take a look at our digital collections for the first time. We are still working on this behind the scenes, but we are glad to show you what we already have. Besides photos, documents and other collection items, you will also find a lot of additional information about the history of the Westerbork camp. This could be helpful if you are doing research for a thesis or school assignment, or if you are just curious. In case you are looking for information about specific people, you can search by name in our database of personal data.

If you would like to visit Westerbork Memorial in Hooghalen, we would like to refer you to our homepage. Here you can find practical information such as opening hours and entrance fees, and see what activities take place on site.

Please note: his version of the website is only available in Dutch. We are working on translations into English and German. For now, you could use automatic translation services offered by your web browser. Please note that these translations are generated automatically and could contain mistakes.

Curator Guido Abuys in the depot

These are the things you will (and will not) find on this website

You will see descriptions and digital photos and scans of objects and documents collected by Westerbork Memorial since its foundation in 1983. You will only see items that are allowed to be shared online and whose descriptions have been checked by members of our archival and research department.

This is only a part of the entire collection. The objects you see are kept in the Memorial's depot and some of them are part of exhibitions. Most of the items were handed to the Memorial by survivors, relatives and acquaintances of people who were imprisoned in the Westerbork camp. They are personal objects and documents, but also items related to the organisation of the camp, its development and its remembrance.

Most collection items relate to Westerbork as a transit camp in World War II, but there are also objects concerning other periods. Other heritage institutions, such as the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, also have documents and objects about the Westerbork camp. These cannot be found on this website (yet).

You can search for names and biographical data of people who were imprisoned in the Westerbork camp during World War II. For reasons of privacy, you will only see the names of people who died or were born before 1924. In most cases, you can also see data taken from archival sources kept in external archives. These data have been entered into the database by employees of the Memorial. Sometimes, we have personal items or photographs connected to a name. However, most people only stayed in the Westerbork camp for a short time: information about them is usually rather scarce.

The website features descriptions on topics, locations and events that have been important and relevant for the history of the Westerbork camp. Available collection items are linked to these topics.

Work in progress

Behind the scenes, we are still busy checking, completing and connecting the information in our databases. However, given the importance of the data, both for individuals and society as a whole, we are glad to share what we already have on this website. It is not yet complete or definitive, but it is a start!

This is the first version of our collections' website, with the most basic functions to present our data and make it searchable. We already have a list of ideas for additions and extensions. To develop these, we will start a new project.