Labor Camp “De Fledders”

October 3, 2022

Labor Camp “De Fledders”

Group photo of ‘Room 3’ in Kamp De Fledders near Norg in Drenthe.

When I saw this photograph, I was reminded of another photo. It was a picture of my colleagues and I in 1993/1994. It was taken at work on the day of the retirement of one of my colleagues at the time. We had a small party afterwards at the cafeteria of Philips Sittard. The photo wasn’t very dissimilar to the photograph above.

However, the circumstances could not be more different. The photograph is of a group of men who were all interned at the labour camp “de Fledder” in Drenthe in the northeast of the Netherlands.

On 7 January 1942, the Jewish Council in Amsterdam was pressured and held responsible for supplying 1,402 Jewish unemployed people. In the end, 1075 unemployed were identified, and more than 900 men gathered at the Amstel station on 10 January. They were sent to the labour camps in the northern provinces, in particular, to perform reclamation work for the Heidemij company. Of these men, 120 total were in Camp De Fledders near Norg in Drenthe. On 3 October, Yom Kippur, 1942, the Jewish men were deported by train to Camp Westerbork. None of them survived the war.

When you look at the facial expressions of the men, you can see all emotion—from joy to sadness and hope to despair. One man even has a bunch of flowers, possibly with the hope he will give them to his wife.

The Heidemij company is now known as Arcadis NV, a global design, engineering and management consulting company. The current company figures aren‘t available, but in 2019, their revenue was 3.5 billion euros. Their current stock price is €33.50 per share. Their tagline: “Improving Quality of Life,” doesn’t appear to me that they improved the lives of those who worked for them in 1942.

As for the men who were murdered in various camps after the labor camp closed, all that remains is this monument with these words by Jacqueline van der Waals:

‘EEN MONUMENT VOOR GISTEREN, VANDAAG EN MORGEN.
IN 1942 VERBLEVEN IN HET NABIJGELEGEN WERKKAMP
“DE FLEDDERS” 120 JOODSE MEDEBURGERS.
ZIJ KWAMEN NIET MEER TERUG.’

“A MONUMENT FOR YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW.
STAYED IN THE NEARBY WORK CAMP. IN 1942
“THE FLEDDERS” 120 JEWISH FRIENDSHIPS.
THEY DID NOT COME BACK.”

I sincerely hope that Arcadis paid for the monument. Somehow, I doubt it.