2 May ’04, Sunday. Checking out of our campsite in Groningen we headed over to Gamma’s (small Home Depot) to pick up some laminated lumber and other small construction type supplies. Then onto the highway heading South. Our first stop was in Westerbork. In 1933 when Hitler came into power in Germany, he started to systematically expel the Jewish population. In 1940 almost ¾ of the Jews had already escaped the Nazi’s. 20-30,000 of these went to the Netherlands but only a few entered with permission – the majority were illegal refugees. Those that were illegal went into various refugee camps. In early 1939 the Dutch government decided to build one central refugee camp….Westerbork. In the first year over 800 refugees could be found in Westerbork. They had to build their own community, cultivate the heath and shape their life inside the camp. After the invasion into the Netherlands by the Nazi’s, the Jews tried to escape to England but that failed. They went further north into the Netherlands only to have the Nazi’s turn them back to Westerbork. In 1941 & 42 they tried to maintain “life as normal with the kids going to school, adults had to work on the land or in one of the services of the camp. During leisure time inmates could go to specially organized cultural events or attend classes. In July of ’42 the SS corp. of the Nazi’s took over. Barbed wire and watchtowers appeared around the camp. In the same month the first deportation train with Dutch Jews left for the Death Camps of Auschwitz. This is the first camp that Anne Frank and her family were sent to after being betrayed. They too rode the deportation train to other camps. During the war more than 100,000 Jews, Gypsies and resistance fighters were carried off from Westerbork. Most people remained there only a few days or weeks before being deported to the death camps. The journey in cattle wagons used to last 3 days. A mother, a father, a son, a daughter, a brother, a sister, a grandfather, a grandmother, an aunt, an uncle, a cousin, a niece, a nephew, a friend was murdered by the Nazi’s 102,000 times. On April 12th, 1945 the Canadians liberated 876 Jewish prisoners in Camp Westerbork. It was very sobering but also an honor for the 2 of us to visit Camp Westerbork and have a chance to learn what went on there and to remember those that had to live and die because of Hitler and his Nazi’s. It was a quiet drive for quite awhile. We headed further South. Finally found our next stop at Flevoland and in a campground just on the other side of the dike form Harderwijk. Tomorrow a little South and then East…. (we think)