Memorial Work camps Diever - Oude Willem

In January 1942, the first Jewish people from Amsterdam were brought to the labour camps in Drenthe. Until then, the camps Diever A and Diever B near Oude Willem had housed mostly (non-Jewish) unemployed men from the Randstad, but they had all left by the end of 1941 and had mostly been put to work in Germany. The German occupiers found the empty Reich labour camps a suitable location to isolate Jewish men from their families and force them into hard labour. For example, the men had to clear wasteland, build roads and clear snow from the access roads to the labour camps, sometimes in temperatures of -20°C.

The camps in Diever accommodated nearly 200 Jewish men. To make room for a new batch, groups of Jewish men constantly had to walk, in the dead of night, to the large transit camp in Westerbork. An exhausting march of about 25 to 30 kilometres, accompanied by guards. Camps Diever A and Diever B had thus become satellite camps for Westerbork. How the situation in the camps deteriorated we have been able to learn from the letters the men wrote to their home front. Like the letters from 34-year-old Philip Wertheim from Amsterdam to his wife Ina, his brother Willem and sister-in-law Ali and their children, which have been preserved. There is still a certain optimism from the first letters. Wertheim writes about the constant hunger and small portions of food. He devises a ruse and, with the cooperation of his brother and family doctor, tries to get an explanation that his bad teeth cause terrible stomach and headaches and hopes he will be allowed to return home because of this. In vain, in July 1942 Philip too had to make the arduous journey on foot to camp Westerbork. Despite meeting his wife Ina again there, this joy is short-lived. In late October, they were transported together to Auschwitz to be gassed. Ina as early as 29 October and Philip on 1 December 1942.

On 29 September 1942, the camp leadership sent a letter to, among others, the mayor of Diever (popularly known as Ome Kees). The letter reported that, despite the strict prohibition, the citizens of Diever repeatedly provided assistance to the Jewish camp workers by supplying extra food and refreshments. The mayor was asked to once again warn his citizens of the dire consequences. Even before the mayor could comply, on the night of 2 to 3 October 1942, on the Jewish Great Day of Atonement, the entire camp was evacuated. All the men from the Drenthe labour camps began their journey on foot to Westerbork that night. Their belongings were transported by a local lorry driver, but they would never see this driver again. It was part of a large raid, during which the men's wives and children were taken from their homes at the same time. Over ten thousand Jews arrived in Westerbork that night. Only a few returned after the war.

After the war, in 1946, the barracks were demolished and rebuilt in Montfort, Limburg, where they were given a new function. The foundations remained behind. During the construction of a cycle path in 2000, a piece of concrete was found, which turned out to be part of those foundations. On 2 October 2002, a memorial was unveiled at that spot in memory of all the Jews who stayed in Diever A or Diever B for short or long periods of time. The monument consists of a glass plate with a poem by Jacqueline van der Waals (1868-1922) called ‘Courage’, taken from her 1922 collection of ‘Last verses’. The monument is a silent witness to injustice and reminds us never to forget these atrocities.