Former Jewish labour camp Schaarshoek

The Jewish work camp ‘Schaarshoek’ was located at this site between February and October 1942.

In the 1930s, the Dutch government had so-called work clearance camps built to house unemployed people as part of the work provision scheme. From January 1942, over 40 of these camps including Schaarshoek were designated to make room for Jewish men made unemployed by anti-Jewish measures. The Amsterdam Jewish Council was instructed in January 1942 to ‘supply’ the first 1,075 men for this purpose. More later followed from other parts of the country.

The camps were mainly in the North and East of the Netherlands and the work included digging on the heathland, digging up potatoes and building roads or paths. As the year progressed, conditions became worse and worse, and in the night of 2/3 October 1942, almost all camps were evacuated and the residents taken to Westerbork. This also applied to Schaarshoek.

After the departure of the Jewish forced labourers, the camp housed, among others, evacuees from The Hague and Scheveningen, and later from other places, whose houses had been demolished due to the construction of the Atlantic Wall. The last residents during World War II were residents of Twilhaar who had to move because of the construction of V1 launchers.

Today, the place is used as a summer camp for young people. Only the canteen remains largely intact.

Much information about this-and about the other camps-can be found at:
www.joodsewerkkampen.nl.
An initiative of Herinneringscentrum Kamp Westerbork

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