The Camp Vught National Memorial

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Camp Vught (Herzogenbusch concentration camp) was a Nazi concentration camp located in Vught near the city of 's-Hertogenbosch.

  • Experience the history and the current importance of the former SS camp Vught.
  • Kamp Vught was the only concentration camp controlled by the SS outside Germany in Western Europe.
  • Today, Kamp Vught stands as a national monument listing the names of the people who died there.

At Kamp Vught, the Germans incarcerated - among others - Jews, political prisoners, gypsies, homosexual people and members of the resistance. Prisoners were forced to make products for the German war industry, such as torches and radios. Despite their difficult circumstances, the prisoners managed to resist even in the prison camp by sabotaging the goods they were forced to make.

Bunker drama

Kamp Vught witnesses endless cruelty on the part of the German occupiers. One of the most infamous events is the bunker drama. On 15 January 1944, to punish prisoners for a women’s protest in the camp, the camp commander put 74 women in cell 115, a bunker measuring 9 square meters without ventilation. When the soldiers opened the bunker door the next morning, 10 of the women were dead.

Herzogenbush Concentration Camp

Camp Vught was the only concentration camp run directly by the SS in western Europe outside of Germany. The camp was first used in 1943 and held 31,000 prisoners and 749 prisoners died in the camp, others were transferred to other camps shortly before the camp was liberated by the Allied Forces in 1944.

Museum and Monument

Nowadays, on the former site of the concentration camp, an educational museum is to be found as well as a prisoner's barrack, three watch towers and the original fencing,  and cell 115 - where the horrible bunker tragedy took place - have been reconstructed. The execution site is now a national monument, listing all the people who died here.

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The Camp Vught National Memorial
Address: 
Lunettenlaan 600
5263NT Vught
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Watch this video: Camp Vught National Memorial

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