The Storm… | 4th Grand Falls Scouts & Venturers

Jul 25th The Storm…

For the first time in our European Adventure we woke up to rain. It was a very gray, very wet start to the day, and it only got grayer and wetter as we made our way to the Netherlands.

The rain slowed down a bit by the time we arrived at Camp Vught in the Netherlands. The camp hadn’t opened yet by the time we arrived, so Scouter Herman took that time to give us a guided tour of the woods surrounding the infamous Camp.

Turns out Scouter Herman is a super-Scouter and spent time teaching the kids about uses for various trees and plants as well as how to navigate the Dutch trail system. It was like being on an episode of Survivorman, lol!

The tone changed quickly though as we approached a strange clearing with a large wall behind a trench.

Turns out this was the spot the guards at the camp would take the prisoners for mass executions after the D-Day landings. All of a sudden we were reminded, like a slap in the face, what this stop was all about… the walk back to the camp was much less jovial.

Although Camp Vucht was not a death camp, it was the only work camp outside of Germany that was operated directly by the SS so it had a reputation of being the worst of the worst. We knew in advance that this experience would simply not be for everyone, so youth had the option to sit this one out and instead take a walking tour of Vucht.

The rest of us made our way into Camp Vught… I really have a lot to say about this experience, but I just can’t seem to put it to text. To say it was a powerful experience is an understatement. Words just can’t do it justice…

I will say that if you go to Camp Vught, make sure you get a guided tour. It was the stories from our guide more than what we saw that truly stuck with us. Camp Vught is a terrible, horrible and profoundly sad place, but it was a very important part of our overall experience as it really drove home why so many Canadians gave their lives. This is the why – this is what we fought to stop.