Gratitude for safe haven

This monument, a boulder, was erected in honor of Grandpa Bakker and his wife Aunt Cor, who played an important role in caring for the people in hiding in the Pasop camp. The boulder is placed on a pedestal of field boulders. An iron memorial plaque has been placed on the stone. The monument commemorates the fact that between April 1943 and the end of October 1944, approximately eighty people in hiding found a safe hiding place in nine huts.

Among the people in hiding were Jewish families, people who did not want to work in Germany, resistance fighters and, at the end of the period, also English and American pilots. Even a German deserter and a Russian who had escaped from a prisoner of war camp found shelter here.

The camp was established on the initiative of the lawyer Mr. E. H. von Baumhauer and D. D. Bakker, a retired chief conductor of the railways. Grandpa Bakker and his wife Aunt Cor, together with others, were responsible for the daily care. By chance, the Pas Opkamp or Het Verscholen Dorp was discovered by two Landstormers on 29 October 1944. Eight Jews did not survive the discovery. A woman died, her husband was murdered. The six other Jews were shot on the Tongerenseweg, including a six-year-old boy. See information at Gedenkstenen Tongerenseweg.

After the war, the huts were destroyed. The idea arose to make the memory of the camp visible. The initiators were I. Buwalda, who worked for the Mounted Group of the National Police and the Nunspeet general practitioner, doctor J. Menges. They made contact with former residents and the idea was developed. A boulder was placed. The boulders were collected in the forest. A memorial plaque was placed. The text reads:

In memory of
The hiding camp and its FOUNDERS,
in particular AUNT COR and GRANDPA BAKKER.
Offered by the many who were allowed to anchor in this
safe haven from
April 1943 to November 1944
May 4, 1970

The unveiling took place on May 4, 1970 by the youngest person in hiding from the camp, the then 5-year-old Herman Löwenberg together with aunt Cor. In 1984, a hut was reconstructed and in 1995 two more, so that three huts give an impression of the situation in the Pas Opkamp or Het Verscholen Dorp. Read more about Het Verscholen Dorp here, you can also visit the website of the Stichting Het Verscholen Dorp. Aart Visser’s book is an extensive source of information: ‘Het Verscholen Dorp, Verzet en onderduikers op de Veluwe’, ninth, expanded and revised edition 2018. There is also a permanent exhibition in Hotel Restaurant De Vossenberg, Elspeterbosweg 1, Vierhouten.
An annual commemoration takes place at this monument on 4 May.