Herzogenbusch-Vught Concentration Camp

Scope and content

The collection contains among others:

status reports, transport lists, death books prisoner registration forms, execution reports, demands for prisoners for diamond cutting work, general correspondence, prisoner registration cards, money account cards

History of Concentration Camp Herzogenbusch-Vught 1942-1944:

Herzogenbusch was one of the few SS-concentration camps to the west of the German Reich. It emerged in Vught near the city Herzogenbusch (Dutch: ’s-Hertogenbosch) in the south of the Netherlands. The Higher SS and Police Leader in the Netherlands, Hans Albin Rauter, wanted to run Herzogenbusch as “exemplary camp”, in order to counteract the Nazi camp reputation, which had by then become known as being viciously cruel. The rumors about the Amersfoort Camp in particular had horrified the Dutch people. Construction work began in the summer of 1942 and on 13 January 1943 the first prisoners entered the unfinished camp, where, under harsh conditions, they were forced to continue with the construction of the camp. These were Jews from Amsterdam who had worked in the armament industry. During the course of the camp’s existence more and more Jews from other parts of the country were transported to Herzogenbusch. Their guards were German and Dutch members of the SS. Initially planned as a “Police Youth Transit Camp”, Herzogenbusch steadily became a camp where different categories of prisoners were held captive. There were several sections in the camp: a “transit camp for Jews” (which was constructed in January 1943 and is known by the name Vught), a “protective custody camp” for male prisoners, a women’s camp and a hostage camp. Depending on the camp division, the living conditions of the prisoners there varied. Although the conditions found in Herzogenbusch were, to a certain degree, somewhat better compared to other concentration camps, daily abuse by the SS Guard Units was prevalent here, too. Moreover, as of early 1943, the inmates were faced with the constant threat of being deported to the East. The deportations most often went via Westerbork to Auschwitz Extermination Camp and Sobibor. Until March 1943 all the Amersfoort Camp prisoners were transported to Herzogenbusch, from where they were sent on to Westerbork and Poland. The Philips Company set up work sites in the camp, where some 1200 prisoners labored, alongside civilians from outside the camp. With the Allies ever advancing, in the summer of 1944 the process of dissolving the camp began. Prior to this, on 3 June 1944, a last group of inmates, who had been laboring in the factories of the Philips Company, was sent to Auschwitz. With that last transport, Transit Camp Vught was dissolved. The remaining areas of Concentration Camp Herzogenbusch were liberated in September 1944 by Allied troops.

Source: Romijn, Peter: ’s-Hertogenbosch-Vught (Herzogenbusch), in: Lexikon des Holocaust, ed. by Wolfgang Benz, München 2002, p. 96 and http://www.memorialmuseums.org/denkmaeler/view/108/Nationale-Gedenkstätte-Lager-Vught [Latest access 2012-08-02].

Existence and location of originals

In part: Federal Archives, Koblenz, Germany