![Nieuwvosseveldvught](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Nieuwvosseveldvught.JPG)
Nieuw Vosseveld is a
prison
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...
in
Vught
Vught () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a town in the southern Netherlands, and lies just south of the industrial and administrative centre of 's-Hertogenbosch. Many commuters live in the municipality, and the town of Vugh ...
,
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, part of the
Custodial Institutions Agency The Custodial Institutions Agency ( nl, Dienst Justitiële Inrichtingen, , DJI) is responsible for the incarceration of adults in the Netherlands. It is subordinate to the Ministry of Public Safety and Justice. The agency has its headquarters in T ...
(
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
: ''Dienst Justitiële Inrichtingen'', DJI) of the
Ministry of Justice and Security
The Ministry of Justice and Security ( nl, Ministerie van Justitie en Veiligheid; JenV) is the Dutch Ministry responsible for justice, imprisonment and public security. The Ministry was created in 1798 as the ''Department of Justice'', before it ...
within the
Dutch criminal justice system
The criminal justice system of the Netherlands is the system of practices and institutions of the Netherlands directed at upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime, and sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties an ...
. ''Penitentiaire Inrichting Vught'' (English: Penitentiary Institution Vught) is now the general term used instead of Nieuw Vosseveld. Part of Nieuw Vosseveld is a maximum security prison; it holds some of Europe's most dangerous criminals, including Islamic terrorists
Mohammed Bouyeri
Mohammed Bouyeri ( ar, محمد بويري ; born 8 March 1978) is a Moroccan-Dutch convicted terrorist serving a life sentence without parole in the prison of Nieuw Vosseveld (Vught) for the assassination of Dutch film director Theo van Gogh. ...
and
Samir Azzouz
Samir Azzouz (born 27 June 1986) is a Dutch national of Morocco, Moroccan descent. He was incarcerated in Nieuw Vosseveld on suspicion of attempting to procure heavy firearms and planning terrorism, terrorist attacks. He was also suspected to be ...
.
History
World War II
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
,
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
occupied the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
(1940–1945). The
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
s transported
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
and other prisoners from the Netherlands via the transit camps
Amersfoort
Amersfoort () is a city and municipality in the province of Utrecht, Netherlands, about 20 km from the city of Utrecht and 40 km south east of Amsterdam. As of 1 December 2021, the municipality had a population of 158,531, making it the second- ...
and
Westerbork
Camp Westerbork ( nl, Kamp Westerbork, german: Durchgangslager Westerbork, Drents: ''Börker Kamp; Kamp Westerbörk'' ), also known as Westerbork transit camp, was a Nazi transit camp in the province of Drenthe in the Northeastern Netherlands, ...
to
concentration camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
s such as
Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
and
Bergen-Belsen
Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentrati ...
.
When Amersfoort and Westerbork appeared to be too small to handle the large number of prisoners, the
Schutzstaffel
The ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS; also stylized as ''ᛋᛋ'' with Armanen runes; ; "Protection Squadron") was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe d ...
decided to build a concentration camp in
Vught
Vught () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a town in the southern Netherlands, and lies just south of the industrial and administrative centre of 's-Hertogenbosch. Many commuters live in the municipality, and the town of Vugh ...
near the larger city
's-Hertogenbosch
s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a city and municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 157,486. It is the capital of the province of North Brabant and its fourth largest by population. The city is south of th ...
,
with a series of
sub camps.
The building of the camp Herzogenbusch, the German name for 's-Hertogenbosch, started in 1942.
The camp was modeled after the concentration camps in Germany.
The camp held male and female prisoners captured in Belgium and the Netherlands. The guard staff included SS men and a few SS women, headed by
Oberaufseherin
Aufseherin was the position title for a female guard in the Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Of the 50,000 guards who served in Nazi concentration camps, about 5,000 were women. In 1942, the first female guards arrived at Auschwitz a ...
Margarete Gallinat
Oberaufseherin Margarete Gallinat (born 1894, date of death unknown) was the chief supervisor at Kamp Vught, Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, s ...
. The Nazis initially used this location as a transit camp to gather prisoners for classification and transportation to Poland and other camps. The first prisoners, who arrived in 1943, had to finish building the camp.
The camp was used from January 1943 until September 1944. During this period, the camp held nearly 31,000 prisoners: Jews, political prisoners, resistance fighters, gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, homeless people, black market traders, criminals and hostages.
Dutch underground members
Corrie and
Betsie ten Boom
Elisabeth ten Boom (19 August 1885 – 16 December 1944) was a Dutch woman, the daughter of a watchmaker, who suffered persecution under the Nazi regime in World War II, including incarceration in Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she died ...
were held at Vught in 1944, before being sent to
Ravensbrück concentration camp.
Poncke Princen
Johannes Cornelis Princen (21 November 1925 – 2 February 2002), also known as Poncke Princen, was a Dutch anti-Nazi fighter and activist. In 1948, he deserted, joining the pro-independence guerrillas in what was then the Dutch Indies.
...
, who would later become known for going over to the
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
n guerrillas opposing Dutch rule, was also imprisoned at Vught for his anti-Nazi activities.
Due to hunger, sickness and abuse at least 749 children, women and men died in the concentration camp. 329 of them were executed at the execution site, just outside the camp.
When
Allied forces were approaching Herzogenbusch, the camp was evacuated and the prisoners were transferred to concentration camps further to the east. When the camp was liberated in September 1944, by the
4th Canadian Armored Division and the 96th Battery of the 5th Anti-Tank Division, the camp was almost deserted.
Camp in post-war times
After World War II, the camp was first used as a prison for Germans and "wrong" people: Dutch SS-men, (suspected) collaborators and/or their children, and war criminals.
At first, they were guarded by Allied soldiers, but shortly after by the Dutch. As a parliamentary enquiry (the Committee A.M. Baron Tuyll van Serooskerken) showed in 1950, this resulted in maltreatment and even
summary executions
may refer to:
* Abstract (summary), shortening a passage or a write-up without changing its meaning but by using different words and sentences
* Epitome, a summary or miniature form
* Abridgement, the act of reducing a written work into a sho ...
.
Later, the barracks of Camp Vught were made available to Indonesian
Molucca
The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located ...
ns, for use as their living quarters. The former barracks were first converted into a number of home units.
In 1953, part of the camp was fenced off for use as a facility for
juveniles who had been given a lengthy (i.e. over 5 years), sentence. The current building was designed by architects and Maris van den Berg, with a capacity of 120 to 140 detainees. The regime in the establishment was quite progressive for the time, with cell doors left open during the day.
In the early 1970s, an adult facility was added, which included a hospital. In 1993 the high security EBI unit was moved to Nieuw Vosseveld, and the hospital moved to
Scheveningen prison
The Hague Penitentiary Institution (Dutch: ''Penitentiaire Inrichting Haaglanden'') is a Dutch prison that is part of the Judicial Institutions Department (''Dienst Justitiële Inrichtingen'', DJI) of the Ministry of Justice. It can accommodat ...
.
In 1999, a forensic
psychiatric
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry.
Initial psychi ...
unit, where inmates with a serious mental disorder can be placed.
Recently, the prison opened a department where terrorist suspects can be held, which uses part of the original juvenile building. This department was in the Dutch news because the cells did not meet the fire safety requirements. This came to light in a nationwide investigation following the fire at the deportation center at
Schiphol airport
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol , known informally as Schiphol Airport ( nl, Luchthaven Schiphol, ), is the main international airport of the Netherlands. It is located southwest of Amsterdam, in the municipality of Haarlemmermeer in the province ...
.
Presently, PI Vught has 15 different regimes and a capacity for 750 prisoners and TBS-ers (i.e. subject to
involuntary commitment
Involuntary commitment, civil commitment, or involuntary hospitalization/hospitalisation is a legal process through which an individual who is deemed by a qualified agent to have symptoms of severe mental disorder is detained in a psychiatric hos ...
).
TEBI and EBI
Increasing violence of some detainees created a need for a facility where inmates with a high risk of violence could be securely detained. In 1993 Nieuw Vosseveld initially had a temporary maximum security facility called TEBI, and since 1996 a permanent maximum security facility known as
("Extra Security Institution", EBI) is part of Nieuw Vosseveld.
The regime in the EBI is very stringent, with detainees given minimal freedom from their cells. Detainees are moved between units while being handcuffed, and even external exercise cells are caged-enclosed. The EBI presently has a capacity of 18 detainees, and an occupation of on average nine detainees.
PI Vught TBS
PI Vught TBS houses two units, designed in close collaboration with Prof WPJ Pompestichting. There is a section for active treatment of 24, added to in 2007 by a new long-stay unit opened for the accommodation of 22 patients.
Detainees
Amongst the criminals currently imprisoned at Nieuw Vosseveld are:
*
Mohammed Bouyeri
Mohammed Bouyeri ( ar, محمد بويري ; born 8 March 1978) is a Moroccan-Dutch convicted terrorist serving a life sentence without parole in the prison of Nieuw Vosseveld (Vught) for the assassination of Dutch film director Theo van Gogh. ...
, murderer of
Theo van Gogh
*
Willem Holleeder
Willem Frederik Holleeder (born 29 May 1958) is a Dutch criminal. He is nicknamed ''De Neus'' (''The Nose'') because of the size of his nose.
In 1983, Holleeder was sentenced to eleven years' imprisonment for his involvement in the kidnapping o ...
, one of the perpetrators in the kidnapping of
Freddy Heineken
Alfred Henry "Freddy" Heineken (4 November 1923 – 3 January 2002) was a Dutch businessman for Heineken International, the brewing company bought in 1864 by his grandfather Gerard Adriaan Heineken in Amsterdam. He served as chairman of the boar ...
*
Ridouan Taghi
Ridouan Taghi (born 20 December 1977) is a Moroccan-Dutch criminal who became a prime suspect in at least ten murders related to organised crime, drug trafficking and leading a criminal organisation.
Until his late 2019 arrest in Dubai, Taghi was ...
, under trial for drug trafficking and murder
*
Curtis Warren
Curtis Francis WarrenBarnes, Tony; Richard Elias; Peter Walsh. 2003 ''Cocky: the rise and fall of Curtis Warren, Britain's biggest drug baron'' (also known as Cocky; born 31 May 1963) is an English gangster and drugs trafficker who was formerly I ...
, British drug trafficker
References
{{coord, 51, 39, 48, N, 5, 15, 28, E, type:landmark, display=title
Prisons in the Netherlands
Buildings and structures in North Brabant
Vught
Holocaust locations in the Netherlands