The then director of Arnhem’s Gemeentemuseum Pierre Jansen (1926-2007) interviewed the painter-sculptor Johan Hendrik van Zweden (1896-1975) in 1970 on the eve of a retrospective exhibition of his work in Arnhem to mark his 75th birthday. Van Zweden was a pupil of Jan Altink and Jan Wiegers, who together founded De Ploeg and introduced German expressionism to the Netherlands. Van Zweden was also a member of the Groningen artists’ circle. During his Groninger years, many portraits were made of Van Zweden (nicknamed “Shanghai Bobby” because of his Asian features) by Ploeg members, showing personal friendship and sympathy. During World War II, he joined the artists’ resistance, but was soon arrested and imprisoned in Kamp Vught.

The interview includes a discussion of Van Zweden’s resistance activities during the German occupation and his stay in the Vught concentration camp, to which he was transferred in 1943 after his arrest. There, with the knowledge of the camp commander, he was able to set up his own studio. After the commander’s departure, he worked in the drawing room of the Philips workshop in Vught. In the camp, among other things, he made portraits of his fellow prisoners.

In May 1944, he was deported to Dachau concentration camp, from which he was liberated in April 1945. After the war, he was appointed by Mart Stam, as a replacement for the fallen sculptor Frits van Hall, to teach at the Institute for Arts and Crafts Education (later the Gerrit Rietveld Academy) in Amsterdam.

Herman Teerhöfer managed to interview a large number of survivors, starting from their life stories, about their personal experience and perception of the events and circumstances before, during and after World War II.

The poignant stories have been recorded in people’s homes, in image and sound. All interviewees also give a message for future generations in the interview.

Central questions in the interviews are:

• How were they able to survive and what did they draw strength from?

• Where did they draw mental support from? What was their footing?

• How did they make sense of their lives after the war despite many experiences of loss and trauma?

• How did they experience anti-Semitism prior to and after World War II?

• What message do they have for future generations regarding tolerance and forbearance?

   

   

From the testimonies and stories goes the warning “Never again war” and at the same time they call for cherishing and celebrating the freedom we now enjoy.

Wide-ranging interviews
Over the years, a large collection of interviews has been produced. The topics cover a wide range of aspects of World War II, due to the diverse background and environment the interviewees were in.

Smolinski Foundation aims to unlock a large collection of interviews in a way suitable for use during lessons in schools and presentations for cultural and civil society organisations. Digital, interactive teaching materials are also being developed. Interview fragments can also be used in museum presentations.

Overview of available interviews

• 84 life stories of Auschwitz survivors:
  • 20 interviewees were deported from Camp Vught to Auschwitz
  • 28 interviewees were deported to Auschwitz from Camp Westerbork
  • 36 interviewees were deported to Auschwitz from other camps and ghettos outside the Netherlands
• 25 life stories of Jewish people who managed to survive in hiding during World War II
• 11 life stories of people who participated in the Jewish resistance during World War II
• 8 life stories of survivors of Westerbork and Bergen-Belsen
• 3 life stories of survivors of Westerbork only
• 1 life story of a survivor of e.g. Camp Amersfoort
• 10 life stories of survivors of Japanese camps in the former Dutch East Indies
• 2 life stories of people who were children of NSB parents during World War II
• 8 life stories of resistance fighters and former political prisoners from Camp Vught
• 20 life stories of people who survived the Second World War and who, for example, witnessed a bombing (Nijmegen, Tilburg or Rotterdam), or experienced the hunger winter, or joined the Allies at liberation, or other testimonies of the Second World War in the Netherlands
• 10 life stories of people who witnessed the persecution of Jews in, for example, Amsterdam, Leiden and Tilburg, people who witnessed prisoners being put to work outside the camp in Camp Amersfoort or Camp Vught during World War II. These people lived in the immediate vicinity of Camp Amersfoort or Camp Vught at the time of the war.
• 10 life stories of people who experienced Anne Frank before and/or during the war in Amsterdam and/or in Westerbork, Auschwitz-Birkenau and/or Bergen-Belsen. They were classmates or close friends of Anne Frank in Amsterdam, or they were fellow prisoners in Westerbork, Auschwitz-Birkenau and/or Bergen-Belsen.

Tineke Wibaut-Guilonard was a member of the Amsterdam resistance group CS-6 during the war. This group carried out several liquidations, the most famous being that of H.A. Seyffardt, general in the Dutch Volunteer Legion. At first, Tineke managed to escape arrest, but in the second instance, she and her resistance group ended up in Camp Vught through betrayal. There, Tineke Wibaut was put to work in the “Philips-Kommando,” where she learned to make radio tubes. This saved her from deportation to the Eastern European concentration camps for a long time. In 1944 she was deported to Camp Ravensbrück, but from there women with the technical skills she had gained at Philips were sent on to Camp Reichenbach in Poland, part of Gross Rosen. There she was put on “Todesmarsch” and, after much hardship and wandering, liberated in Salzwedel, Germany, by the Americans. After the war, she contributed much to the commemoration of World War II.

The interviews with Tineke Wibaut (1922-1996, daughter-in-law of the well-known Amsterdam alderman Wibaut) and Ms. Wijnalda focus around their experiences in the resistance during World War II and their subsequent internment in Camp Vught and the Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp. Among other things, they talk about the work they did in Vught for Philips and in Ravenbrück for the German electronics concern Telefunken.

Interviewee(s): Mrs. V.E. Wibaut-Guilonard (4x), Mrs. Wijnalda (3x)

Subject: Second World War, resistance, camp Vught, Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp

Dr. E.J.W. Verwey, curator of the RUU, took the initiative to research the Philips commando in the Vught concentration camp after a reunion of people who had been involved. Verwey himself had also been in the camp. Via Prof. von der Dunk, student W. Velema was found willing to carry out the research and write a doctoral thesis on the subject.

Braakman, Laman Trip, Peeters and De Wit were interviewed together. At the time, they were involved in the leadership of the Command and thus had to deal with the daily practice of ‘Vught’. A more general discussion is also held with Philips and Rathenau about the Philips group in the period 1940-45. F. Philips, at the time of the interview president of the Board of Directors of NV Philips, was director of the Philips factories in Eindhoven. Rathenau was involved with the Jewish (SOBU) workshop of Philips, among other things. At the time of the interview, he was Professor of Mathematics and Physics at the Municipal University of Amsterdam.

Although prisoners were deported from Vught concentration camp to Sachsenhausen concentration camp throughout the occupation period, the trains that left on 5 and 6 September 1944 are the most notorious. About three thousand men were deported, only half of them returned.

In 2008, interviews were held with a number of survivors of these transports about their wartime experiences. The interviewees discuss the differences between the Dutch and the German concentration camps, the forced labour they were forced to perform, their survival strategies and the consequences of the camp past for their lives after the war.

The interviews with the camp survivors are part of a project set up by the municipality of Vught, the Vughts Historical Museum and Camp Vught National Monument. As part of this project, the documentary “Return ticket Sachsenhausen” was made, in which former prisoner Jan van den Ende (interview 04) makes the journey by train again, accompanied by schoolgirl Danni Reches, who asks him questions about his imprisonment.

In September 1944, SS concentration camp Vught was evacuated. After the arrival of the Allies, the site was almost immediately given a new purpose. The Allied army occupied parts of the complex and, in addition, thousands of Dutch citizens suspected of collaboration with the German occupiers were interned in the camp. Less well known is that these internees were soon joined by thousands of evacuated German civilians.

Within the framework of this interview project, nine interviews were conducted with German civilians who were forced to stay in the former Vught concentration camp between November 1944 and May 1945. Their experiences shed light on a still unknown aspect of the postwar history of the camp. In particular, the interviews reveal much about how Canadian troops treated the prisoners. Also discussed is the relationship between the Dutch collaborators and the interned German civilians. How did the German civilian prisoners experience being locked up in one camp with Dutch collaborators? How was the contact between the two groups? The statements of the German civilians also show how concepts such as “right” and “wrong” were handled in the Netherlands immediately after the war.

The German civilians residing in Vught came from the “Selfkantgebiet,” east of Sittard. In September 1944, this area was frontline territory and the approximately 6,000 residents had to be transferred to Camp Vught two months later by order of the British army command. Those who remained behind and were discovered would be shot. The German civilians were transferred to Vught, where thousands of Dutch collaborators were also interned and, in addition, Canadian troops were stationed.

Camp Vught was the only SS concentration camp west of the German national border during World War II. From the initial work of building the camp in mid-1942 until its evacuation in September 1944, diverse groups of workers were involved in this camp. In addition, from one moment to the next, local residents faced an instrument of persecution and terror. Many were touched by the fate of the prisoners, tried to help, but eventually ended up behind the barbed wire themselves. The stories of the local residents have penetrated the historiography only to a very limited extent. Nor has sufficient attention been paid to the “voluntary” labor by the civilian workers.

As part of this oral history project, eight testimonies of Dutch civilian workers and local residents have been recorded. Attention to these almost forgotten groups also means an interesting insight into the behavior and dilemmas they faced, the choices that were made and their consequences. These groups of “bystanders” are given a sharper profile through the interview

In 1942, construction began on Konzentrationslager Herzogenbusch, as Camp Vught was officially called. When the first starving and beaten prisoners arrived from Camp Amersfoort in January 1943, Vught was not yet ready. The prisoners had to finish the camp themselves. The miserable conditions cost the lives of several hundred people in the first few months. A total of more than 31,000 people were imprisoned in the camp for short or long periods between January 1943 and September 1944. In addition to 12,000 Jews, Vught also held political prisoners, resistance fighters, Jehovah’s Witnesses, students, black marketeers and illegal slaughterers, criminals and hostages. Of these, more than 750 children, women and men died in the camp from starvation, disease and mistreatment.

One of the most tragic events in the history of World War II in the Netherlands. On 6 and 7 June 1943, two trains with Jewish children left camp Vught. All children under 16 had to leave, their mothers were allowed to go with them. They were told they would be going to a special children’s camp nearby. But the trains went to the Westerbork transit camp. And then to Sobibor in Poland. The almost 1,300 Jewish children were killed here almost immediately upon arrival.