The two minutes’ silence for Remembrance Day was initiated in the former transit camp with the ringing of the Westerbork bell. And that was the first time.
“You see parents talking and children looking around. History is passed on here, which makes the commemoration at this place so special.”
A couple from Heerenveen traveled more than 60 kilometers to experience the Remembrance Day of May 4 on the grounds of the former Camp Westerbork. Ten years ago they were here once and it was high time for a new visit, they thought.
“The environment, the silence, the huge procession of people walking along in the silent journey. We did not experience the war, but all the stories from that period literally come together here. We found that very impressive at the time and now again.”
Rush
This time, during the commemoration on the grounds of Camp Westerbork, special attention was paid to the horrors in Sobibor, because this year it is eighty years ago that nineteen trains departed from Camp Westerbork to that extermination camp. Almost all of the 34,313 deportees were murdered in the gas chamber immediately upon arrival.
Lecture Max van Trommel
One of the speakers during the commemoration in the former Camp Westerbork was 90-year-old Max van Trommel. As a 10-year-old Jewish boy, he had to go into hiding during the war to avoid persecution. That worked, but his grandparents were gassed in Sobibor.
“They were betrayed at their hiding place and ended up here, in Camp Westerbork,” said Van Trommel. “When the second transport left Westerbork for Sobibor, they had to go with it. In Sobibor they were murdered in a horrible and bestial way. Thanks to my grandfather’s preparations and with the help of my hiding parents in Borne, I did survive the war. I am very grateful to them for that.”
One of the victims was the Jewish composer Leo Smit from Amsterdam. Students from the Prince Claus Conservatory in Groningen played his music during the commemoration. It had just begun a silent journey. The interest was so great that the program started before everyone had arrived at the memorial site. This was to ensure that the two minutes of silence could begin exactly at 8 p.m.
No tattoo
That silence was not preceded by the traditional Taptoe, but by the ringing of the so-called Westerbork clock, the bell that was used in the camp from 1940 to announce special events.
“We want to give the commemoration a more historic character by ringing the bell,” explained Tessa Bouwman of the Camp Westerbork Memorial Center prior to the commemoration. “The tattoo is much more of a military ritual. This bell also heard the prisoners who were here. By ringing it today we stay a little closer to them and put more emphasis on what happened to them instead of the military side of the war.”
According to Bouwman, it is not yet certain whether the tattoo will also be exchanged for the ringing of the bell next year. “We wanted to try this and see what people think. It is certainly not said that we will do it this way forever.”