Camp Westerbork crematorium - Hooghalen

After the discovery of the remains of ten resistance fighters from Knokploeg De Hondsrug on the instructions of Werner Sterzenbach, further research was conducted. It was now known that resistance fighters were regularly imprisoned in Camp Westerbork, awaiting transport to Germany or a trial by the Polizei-standgericht. Despite the fact that Camp Westerbork was a transit camp, executions were occasionally carried out there. These usually involved resistance fighters, or in the eyes of the German occupiers: terrorists. The bodies of people who died in camp Westerbork were cremated in the camp crematorium.

Things sometimes went wrong in this process. For instance, the camp administrators could not get the oven to light when the ten from Knokploeg De Hondsrug were to be cremated. The Jewish prisoners then ordered to carry out the cremation were put on transport immediately after the ashes were buried. (The aforementioned Werner Sterzenbach was one of them; he managed to escape during this transport). In another case, there was not enough fuel to burn the bodies completely and the remains were only partially cremated and buried in mass graves behind the crematorium.

Eventually, the remains of 52 executed people were recovered. Their names are inscribed in a corten steel wall at the end of the former execution site, near where the crematorium was located. The crematorium itself was demolished in 1951. The remains of the persons from the mass grave have been reburied in various places around the country.