The camp site at Camp Westerbork Memorial Center. Photo: ANP
The stories of Holocaust survivors Ronald Waterman and Zoni Weisz are central this year during the commemoration of the dead on Wednesday 4 May at Camp Westerbork.
For the first time since 2019, the public is again allowed to be present at the commemoration.
Camp survivors and younger generations are the focus this year. For example, young people between the ages of 13 and 21 have a chance to recite a poem during the commemoration. They can participate in the poetry competition Westerbork in Word † You can register until April 11.
The musical intermezzo this year is due to opera singer Channa Malkin. Accompanied by Artem Belogurov on piano, she sings songs by her father Josef, to poems by Ida Vos.
‘Westerbork was very unpleasant’
Ronald Waterman was seven years old when he was isolated from his friends in Delft in May 1942. He had to wear a star and was no longer allowed to go to school. Together with his parents he ends up in camp Westerbork in 1943.
‘Westerbork was very unpleasant. The cattle wagons came every Tuesday. When the train pulled away at full capacity, the tension subsided, only to rise during the week.’
On September 4, 1944, the family is deported to Theresienstadt, where he survives the Second World War despite the appalling conditions. After the war, Ronald withholds his Jewish identity until a few years ago, for fear of anti-Semitism.
Deportation train at Assen station
Zoni Weisz talks with his granddaughter Nathalie about the impact of the Second World War on younger generations. Before the war, Zoni Weisz (1937), like most other Sinti in the Netherlands, traveled around in a caravan with his parents, brothers and sisters. Traveling around the world was banned by the Nazis in 1943.
During the raid on May 16, 1944, the Weisz family was also arrested and transferred to camp Westerbork. Zoni stayed behind and saw the deportation train leaving for Auschwitz-Birkenau with his family at Assen station. ‘My sister Rakli’s jacket, my father’s eyes – I can still see them as if it were yesterday.’
Songs of Josef Malkin on poems of Ida Vos
Opera singer Channa Malkin sings the song cycle Black Flowers † songs by her father Josef to poems by Ida Vos. “Ida wrote these poems in memory of her classmates, who were carried off through this place never to return.” Malkin previously performed the work in New York and Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in Amsterdam.
Silent tour from 7 p.m.
The commemoration begins on May 4 at 7 p.m. with a silent procession. The access road to the camp site is open to cars from 4.30 pm. RTV Drenthe broadcasts the commemoration live.
In the past two years, the commemoration took place in an alternative form.