As awful as that was, this is even worse....One day the Germans thought there were too many Jewish children in this camp. They slept in the same cots as their parents but without proper medical care or soap and water, there were many outbreaks of infectious diseases. Since Vught was a labor camp and not a day care center, the Germans wanted to get rid of these children. They promised the Jewish parents to send their children to a brand new children's camp somewhere in Holland. None of the parents believed them but had no choice. On June 6, 1943 all children 0-4 years old were rounded up an taken to the railway station. With only a brief stop at a transit camp, the children went straight to the gas chambers of Sobibor. The next day all the children 4-16 followed the same route. There were 1,260 children killed along with 1,800 parents who were allowed to go with them. The youngest victim was only 6 days old and his story is most puzzling of all. When his train stopped at the transit camp, he was taken off the train and hospitalized in an incubator and cared for by private nurses for two weeks. When he had completely recovered, he was sent on the next train to Sobibor. This monument carries all of the names and ages of the murdered children. Whole families were wiped out. 
The beds in the dormitory were originally made of iron but these are the same size as the original beds. A bed is about 5 feet in length. No adult could be comfortable in that size of a bed and usually more than one person occupied it. The prisoners did not receive sheets or pillows. The mattresses were filled with straw or paper. They received a "thin prickly horse blanket" and that was it.
We are having lunch in a little outdoor cafe right over a canal. It was delicious food and we enjoyed hanging around till the rain stopped.
Rijksmuseum held many paintings of the Dutch masters such as my personal favorite, Vermeer.
If you ever go to Holland, make sure you ride the boats in the canals. Its not only an efficient way to visit the city but the old bridges and architecture and house boats are so quaint.
The bakery building is still standing as seen here. The buildings in Holland are very old. Some of them were built in the 1600-1700's and oft times the house will have the year it was built incorporated in the masonry work on the face of the house. Today when someone buys a house, they are not permitted to make structural changes to the exterior though most people gut the interior to bring it up to date. The interior of the bakery is being worked on at this time. The house to the right is where the Luijmes family once lived.
This mill was once owned by one of my Luijmes ancestors. Across the street is a dijke. If one was to stand on the deck of this mill, you could see the ocean only a few hundred feet away!
This is Dick and Agaath Overgaauw. He researched and published a book on the Overgaauw family. I got so much genealogical information from him and believe it or not, I first met him over the internet. It was fun to meet them. They were very kind and gracious hosts and best of all, they gave us the grand tour and historical background of our family in Zuidland.
This bike shop used to be a store owned by our family. It was strange as we walked around Zuidland to see family names on store front businesses. There are still a number of descendants living in that area.
The churches in the Netherlands and in France as well, are nothing short of architectural art. Absolutely amazing! Many of these churches were originally built in the 1400-1500 time frame as Catholic churches but later they became Dutch Reformed churches. Supposedly one of the reformations was less ornate churches but wow....hard to see that!
Prominent and/or famous people were buried beneath the stone floor of these churches. Johannes Vermeer's, a famous Dutch artist, headstone is shown below. Subconsciously, somehow it seemed somehow disrespectful to walk across these memorials, take pictures and purchase souvenirs in these places of worship but that is how these congregations maintain and restore their churches.
If you were prominent (and rich) enough, you got a monument in the church and an above ground coffin!
The stained glass was fabulous in every church but this one was exceptional.
We walked over a dike which you must understand is like a 15 foot high mound of dirt and..hellooooo.....there is the North Sea!!! I really wonder how these people sleep during any kind of a storm!
Locks like these are everywhere in Holland as are the dikes. We were asked a couple of times why our country doesn't just put in dikes and locks etc. in New Orleans. They don't understand how controversial that is here. For them, it is a necessary and "sunk (like that play on words?) cost."
Delft was a beautiful and quaint town. The canals were so pretty and we saw many wild swans. Notice in the picture below how close the water is to the back doors of these homes and businesses.
We loved this shot of the old and the new windmills. The old ones are so pretty but really only seen out in the country anymore.
One of the first things we saw was this windmill. Since the windmill was actually working we just had to pull off the highway to see it. It was a working mill and the owners ground and sold their own flour as well as give tours of the windmill. We climbed up to the top of the interior and watched as the old wood gears turned the paddles of the windmill. We tasted their homemade bread and bought some flour. There was a fair-like celebration in this little town that day and since every town seems to be built around a church (see background) everyone gathers there by the church and has fun together.
The Netherlands is very green and of course, very flat, with some of it lying below sea level. The country was especially beautiful and though we weren't there during tulip time we saw homes in the country with large fields of other flowers like this one.
Because Holland is so close to the North Sea, it is a common sight to see harbors, locks, dykes and canals throughout the country.
