Westerbork memorial to serve as polling station in Dutch elections in October

Visitors to the Westerbork Memorial will be able to cast their votes during the Dutch parliamentary elections this October. The polling station will be open at the former transit camp on October 29 from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

The municipality of Midden-Drenthe, where Westerbork is located, said that the pencils provided for voting will carry a text by Anne Frank. “Precisely in a place that reminds us of the loss of freedom and oppression, the importance of voting rights, democracy, and the rule of law is emphasized,” the municipality said in a statement. Visitors will also be allowed free admission to the museum on election day.

Mayor Jan Zwiers will cast the first vote in the morning. He said in a statement, “Voting is the core of our democracy. That this can take place in a location where freedom and human rights were once under extreme pressure is deeply moving. Democracy and the rule of law are not self-evident. Especially at a time when they are under threat worldwide, it is important that we exercise our right to vote.”

Kamp Westerbork served as a transit camp during World War II. Between 1942 and 1945, more than 100,000 Dutch Jews, 245 Sinti and Roma, and several dozen resistance fighters were deported from the camp to extermination camps including Auschwitz-Birkenau, Mauthausen, and Sobibór. Only about 5,000 of those deported survived the Holocaust.