List of names of camp Erika online, concentration camp that was forgotten and concealed

NOS News•today, 06:53

Who were the men imprisoned in the almost forgotten camp Erika, in the woods near Ommen? And what did they experience there? During the Second World War, around 7,000 mainly non-Jewish men ended up in this extremely violent German concentration camp in Overijssel. Yet the memory of Camp Erika has disappeared from collective memory.

“Almost nothing here anymore reminds us of the horrors that took place here during the war. Not even an information sign,” says historian and investigative journalist Hester den Boer. “Anyone looking for traces of Camp Erika will end up in an idyllically situated holiday park in the woods of Ommen.”

Den Boer wants to rescue the camp from oblivion. She conducted extensive research into Camp Erika and spoke to survivors. She is also the driving force behind the website kamperika.nl, on which a list of 1,500 names of men who were in the camp from June 1944 to March 1945 is available from today.

Relatives can check here whether and when their family member ended up in camp Erika. The names come from the NIOD archive and have been manually digitized. The list will be further supplemented over time.

Den Boer came across Camp Erika through her grandfather, Jan den Boer. She had asked him a few years before his death if she could interview him. It was known in the family that he had been in camp Westerbork at the end of the war. He had never said anything else, but she felt that the war had left scars.

Her grandfather initially agreed to the interview, but later he called her crying. “I can not do it.” Only after his death in 2018 did she find out through Westerbork camp that her grandfather had never been there. On an archive card, the unknown ‘camp Erika’ was scrawled next to his name.

According to Den Boer, who described her findings in the book published last year Camp ErikaDuring the war, Dutch prisoners here faced torture and extreme violence by Dutch guards, sometimes with fatal consequences.

The responses she receives to her research show that her grandfather was not the only one who remained silent about Camp Erika after the war. Many men did not want to talk about their traumatic experiences.

In this video, relatives talk about what the camp did to their father and what influence it had on their own lives:

‘My father returned from Camp Erika as a different person’

Between June 1942 and April 1943, Dutch men convicted of minor economic crimes, such as black marketing and illegal slaughter, ended up in camp Erika. They have to do forced labor in the forests and on farmers. Their guards are Dutch, in most cases unemployed people from the west. They are encouraged by the German leadership to take as tough action as possible.

During this period, at least 170 prisoners died from exhaustion, disease and severe abuse. “Just hitting wasn’t enough,” says Den Boer. “The guards always came up with something to maximize the humiliation. Sadistic games, starvation, kicks in the genitals, confinement in a low bunker for days. There was a spiral of violence.”

At the end of the war, her grandfather ends up in Camp Erika for stealing milk from the dairy factory. By then, Camp Erika has become a punishment camp, including for people from the resistance and those in hiding. German guards have also been added. Abuse and humiliation are still commonplace.

After the war, the camp guards are tried, but the memory of Camp Erika fades into the background. “There was a taboo at Camp Erika,” says Den Boer. “Many men were traumatized and kept quiet out of shame, as the prisoners were often seen as ‘criminals’ who deserved their punishment.”

In Ommen too, people preferred not to look back. “Some Ommen residents have also benefited financially from the camp. Such as the contractor who built the barracks, the baker who supplied the bread and farmers who received cheap labor. The former Dutch camp commander Lodewijk Diepgrond and other former camp guards came to Ommen after their release. They had to move on together in that small community.”

Jan den Boer visited Ommen again after the war. There are photos of him camping with his family in Ommen, close to the place where it all happened. “And yet his wife knew nothing about it. That’s very strange, but I’ve heard stories like that before.”