Kamp Amersfoort

While in the Netherlands a few weeks ago, I visited Kamp Amersfoort and the monuments for the Soviet P.O.W.'s who were slaughtered there after being displayed to the Dutch people as an example of Untermenschen; this former NAZI concentration camp ironically next-door to my father's graveside. 

Compared with other concentration camps, Kamp Amersfoort was a small and makeshift affair. In operation from 1941 until the end of the war, it was run not by the military but by the German police. Neglect, starvation, maltreatment and murder marked the lives of over 35,000 prisoners who – in the course of two separate periods of the war – were held here for a brief or extended time.

A lot of history and in many ways, connected to my own family - too much to write about in a short blog post - I'll stick to the beret related bit, which comes in the shape of a monument. A bed-frame, boots, uniform, beret... 

I thought it very beautiful and in place there.