The story of Anne Frank is inherently linked to the area of the Ems Dollard region. On August 7, 1944, she was taken to the Kamp Westerbork (municipality Midden-Drenthe), from where she was deported to Auschwitz on 3 September. On the fate of 107,000 people deported from Westerbork now remember seven memorials at stations along the deportation route. The pillars on which short letters and photos are victims of the Holocaust and historical photographs of each station, are in the league, Weener, Leer, Bad Nieuweschans, Winschoten, Hoogezand-Sappemeer and Zuidbroek.
The establishment of memorials is part of the German-Dutch project “On the way from Anne Frank”, within the framework of the INTERREG IV A Programme “Germany-Netherlands” funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the State of Lower Saxony as well as the province of Drenthe. It is accompanied by the program management of the Ems Dollard Region (EDR) in Bad Nieuweschans.
The central memorial ceremony for the unveiling of memorials was now held in Weener. The local train station occupies a particularly tragic role. Partially were overcrowded trains here in extreme heat for hours, they rolled toward concentration camp. Witness Franz Marheineke from Weener had to watch as a teenager how the pent deportees were waiting for their onward journey without return. Marheineke included as part of the project “On the way of Anne Frank” and to the 15 German and Dutch witnesses who had been identified as project organizers. In a recording and display their memories were kept as a reminder.
The Herinneringscentrum Kamp Westerbork also recall 102,000 stones at the people who were deported from this transit camp and died. And here began the history of the EDR INTERREG project “On the way of Anne Frank”. The Centre for Work (ZfA) in Leer, the working group school Rhauderfehn (AKSR), the Gemeente Oldambt and the Herinneringscentrum Kamp Westerbork jointly launched an initiative for German and Dutch long-term unemployed. Together restored 102,000 stones of the monument in Westerbork. The memorial stones had to be laboriously freed from verdigris. The Stars of David were then re-attached with a special glue on it.
Several sub-projects have also been implemented in the project “On the way of Anne Frank”. The website http://www.aufdemwegvonannefrank.de documents the results, research and eyewitness reports.
1 Euroregion x week 