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The concentration camp of Amersfoort was with Vught and Westerbork one of the three concentration camps operated by the Nazis in Holland. For the German administration, Amersfoort was a Police Camp. Not much information is recorded concerning living conditions in this camp. What is known is that thousands of Dutch and Belgian civilians received harsh and cruel treatment at the hands of the Nazis and hundreds were executed at this camp.
In the early stages of Nazi measures against the Jewish people camp Amersfoort also was used to confine and then deport the Jews of Amersfoort. In 1941, 820 Jews lived in the city of Amersfoort. The municipality at first resisted anti-Jewish measures, but could not prevent the removal of Jews from Amersfoort's economic and cultural life. By 22 April 1943 most of the Jewish population in camp Amersfoort was transferred to concentration camp Vught, another of the Nazi camps in the Netherlands. From there they were deported to Poland for extermination. After that date the camp took on the identity of a notorious concentration camp. Life was extremely harsh and torturous for the inmates. Many escapees were shot by the SS. Many Dutch Jews joined others in escape attempts. Most were shot by the SS, however some made good their escape and joined Resistance Fighters which were active in every Nazi occupied country. Capture by the SS meant torture and certain death.
At the time of liberation only 415 survivors were counted. Hardly any of the survivors were Jews.
References:Dating from the 15th century, Kisimul is the only significant surviving medieval castle in the Outer Hebrides. It was the residence of the chief of the Macneils of Barra, who claimed descent from the legendary Niall of the Nine Hostages. Tradition tells of the Macneils settling in Barra in the 11th century, but it was only in 1427 that Gilleonan Macneil comes on record as the first lord. He probably built the castle that dominates the rocky islet, and in its shadow a crew house for his personal galley and crew. The sea coursed through Macneil veins, and a descendant, Ruari ‘the Turbulent’, was arrested for piracy of an English ship during King James VI’s reign in the later 16th century.
Heavy debts eventually forced the Macneil chiefs to sell Barra in 1838. However, a descendant, Robert Lister Macneil, the 45th Chief, repurchased the estate in 1937, and set about restoring his ancestral seat. It passed into Historic Scotland’s care in 2000.
The castle dates essentially from the 15th century. It takes the form of a three-storey tower house. This formed the residence of the clan chief. An associated curtain wall fringed the small rock on which the castle stood, and enclosed a small courtyard in which there are ancillary buildings. These comprised a feasting hall, a chapel, a tanist’s house and a watchman’s house. Most were restored in the 20th century, the tanist’s house serving as the family home of the Macneils. A well near the postern gate is fed with fresh water from an underground seam. Outside the curtain wall, beside the original landing-place, are the foundations of the crew house, where the sailors manning their chief’s galley had their quarters.