Kamp Erika

The Kamp Erika was a concentration camp established by German Nazi troops in 1941. The old youth summer camp area was expanded by the general commissariat as a 'penal camp', and in June 1942, the first prisoners were admitted. Camp Erika was under civil administration, and the guards were Dutch. The prisoners were for the most part criminals and 'economic delinquents' - people who had supposedly violated the economic regulations of the occupying regime.

The camp quickly became overcrowded. Many of the inmates were deported to Germany for forced labour deployment. The conditions at the came were quite like similar to those at a concentration camp; the guards were infamous for their brutality.

In May 1943, the penal camp was closed and the camp was reopened as a 'labour deployment camp'. It was used to intern students who had refused to sign a 'declaration of loyalty' towards the occupying regime. The conditions at the camp were slightly better during the second phase of its existence. Most of the prisoners were eventually deported for labour deployment in Germany. In September 1944, the German Order Police took over the camp, which was finally shut down on April 5, 1945.

Between June 1942 and May 1943, about 3,000 prisoners passed through the camp. Between 170 and 200 inmates died during this period, either on site or in concentration camps in Germany. Between 3,000 and 4,000 prisoners were interned at the camp during the second phase of the camp's existence; 12 of them died at the camp.

Following the liberation by Canadian troops, the Allies used the premises as an internment camp for people suspected of having collaborated with the occupying regime. Up to 2,000 people were interned at the camp until is dissolution at the end of 1946. Later, the premises were converted to a camp site, and all remaining traces of the camp vanished. For many years, all that commemorated the camp was a cross which had been erected in 1946; in 1991, a memorial stone and plaque were added. On May 4, 2006, an information sign was set up. The museum of local history in Ommen has a department dedicated to researching the history of the camp.

References:

• memorialmuseums.org

Address

Besthemerberg 3, Ommen, Netherlands

Details

Founded: 1941
Category: Miscellaneous historic sites in Netherlands