Bunker Tragedy

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The incident known as the Bunker Tragedy or the Bunker Drama was an atrocity committed by the staff at the Herzogenbusch concentration camp (also known as Kamp Vught) in the Netherlands.

When one woman from barrack 23B was locked up in the camp prison (the 'bunker'), other women protested against it. Commander Grünewald, as a punishment, threw as many women as possible into one cell. Eventually, 74 women were pressed together in cell 115, which had a surface of 9 m2 and hardly any ventilation. After 14 hours on a Sunday morning, the cell door opens. Ten women did not survive the night.

Soon this dramatic event was known outside the camp and written about in all the resistance newspapers. The occupying power was not pleased with the fact that the news had leaked. The commander was degraded down to the rank of soldier and was sent to Russia to the front. There he was killed.

Tineke Wibaut, one of the bunker victims, wrote: 'When the lights went off, a great panic rose among the women. It was a strange swelling sound, which sometimes would diminish, but soon swell up again. It was caused by praying, screaming and yelling women. Some tried to yell over it to calm the women down, so they could save oxygen. Sometimes it would help a bit, but then it would start again. It would not stop, it continued the whole night. It diminished, though, because the heat was suffocating.'

This event is being remembered annually in closed circle.^[1]