#Audiospot
Air Armada above Vught
With the advance of Allied troops towards the north, at the beginning of September 1944, the inhabitants of Vught expect their liberators at any moment. When, on September 17, an incredibly large air fleet flies over Vught, expectations are even greater. An impressive air armada also passes over the next day, apparently en route to targets further away.
On September 5 and 6, the Germans had already evacuated the 'Konzentrationslager Herzogenbusch' in the Vught. This is the only SS camp outside Nazi Germany, where between January 1943 and September 1944, over 31,000 people were detained, including 12,000 Jews, political prisoners, resistance fighters, Jehovah's Witnesses, hostages, criminals and so-called 'a-socials', vagrants and black marketeers. In the months prior to the evacuation, the SS executed 329 prisoners.
Despite persistent rumours the Allies are coming, there will be more than a month of shelling, anxious nights in shelters and fierce battles before Vught is finally liberated on October 26, 1944.
Tourist information
Helvoirtse weg. In the church car park (before the junction with Taalstraat). GPS code: 51° 39' 39.6"N 5° 17' 54.5994"E