Visiting a concentration camp, while not really a fun activity, was something I knew I wanted to do when I came to Europe. We, of course, learn about WWII tons in school, but it is radically different to be "where it happened."
I went to the Westerbork transport camp with Hans. It's barely half an hour a way from Groningen, and was the main deportation camp for the Netherlands. Months ago, I attended a lecture about Jewish history in Groningen, and it was both fascinating and terrible. Essentially the entire Jewish population of the city was wiped out. Today, the only synagogue in Groningen has a congregation of only about 50 people (in a city of 200k). Of course this might be a reflection of the much greater secularism in the Netherlands than the US, but it is still an interesting statistic. There used to be a much greater Jewish population in the city (I forgot the exact number). Today the former "Jewish Quarter" is the location of the red light district in Groningen. :O
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| Only a few months after he got his license....terrifying. :) |
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| Oh my god, a train. |
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| On the walking path to the camp, electro-something-or-other monitoring satellites. |
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| Memorial. |
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| Why? |
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| Memorial, each stone represents a person who was at the camp. |
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