Vught, Sint-Michielsgestel, Den Dungen

The Liberation Routes Brabant are eight cycle routes, spread throughout the province, that take you along the stories of World War II and liberation. One of North Brabant's most tangible and poignant reminders is National Monument Camp Vught. Get on your bike for this route past the concentration camp and more places where civilians were held captive.

In the summer of 1942, the construction of... A military base? An airfield? Although dozens of construction workers from Vught and other parts of the Netherlands had been summoned to Vught to build, for a long time people did not know what was actually being built. But with unemployment and the threat of forced labour in Germany, the job was welcome.

Trucks drove back and forth with 6,000 cubic metres of wood, 9,000 tonnes of cement and 30 million bricks in the end. The 15 million guilders of construction costs were financed by the German looting bank Liro, which housed looted Jewish property and assets of deported Jews. Only after months did it become clear what was being built next to the village: a concentration camp.

When the first prisoners arrived, the construction was not yet finished. The prisoners had to finish it themselves under miserable conditions.

In total, some 31,000 people were detained in Camp Vught, including 12,000 Jews who were mainly transported to extermination camps in Poland. Charlotte van Beuningen, a wealthy woman who lived in nearby Huize Bergen, extended a helping hand to the prisoners and arranged for food parcels to enter the camp.

In the months before liberation, the atmosphere hardened and over 300 men were shot, thousands of prisoners were still being transported to Germany and the guards fled. The hostages left behind were released. When the Allies reached the camp in October 1944, it was quiet and empty.

Camp Vught is not the only place in this region where people were held captive. Hundreds of Dutch men were also held hostage at the former Roman Catholic Seminary Beekvliet in an attempt to contain resistance to the German occupation. Whether they succeeded, read the story of the seminary.

Photo: ©NIOD, via VisitBrabant Routebureau