Westerborkpad on foot

The rail monument and a watchtower at the former Kamp Westerbork

Photo: Blacknight, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Distance
about 340 km (211 miles)
Country
Netherlands
Difficulty
Easy
Type of trip
Hiking trail

The Westerborkpad, or LAW 15, is a walk of about 340 km from the Hollandsche Schouwburg in Amsterdam to Kamp Westerbork near Hooghalen in Drenthe. It's a walk of remembrance. During the war the Schouwburg was where Jews were gathered before deportation, and the route follows the railway to Westerbork as closely as it can, past hiding places, monuments and work camps. It was Jan Dokter's idea. He was five when the war began, members of his family were deported to the extermination camps, and in 2008 he walked from the Schouwburg to Westerbork in their memory. Wandelnet splits the path into 29 stages plus a prologue through Amsterdam, and lots of them start or end at a station, such as Weesp, Hilversum, Baarn, Amersfoort, Meppel, Hoogeveen and Beilen, so you can walk it a day at a time.

The marks are the usual white and red stripes with a small barbed wire symbol, and they only go one way, towards the camp. That's deliberate. Wandelnet also has 60 audio stories from survivors, eyewitnesses and resistance fighters, each four to ten minutes long and introduced by Hanneke Groenteman, to listen to on the way or at home. If you want a bed rather than going home each night, look for the Wandelaars Welkom sign. It's Wandelnet's label for cafés and places to stay that want walkers, and campsites that carry it always keep a pitch free for people on foot.

Highlights along the way

  1. Amsterdam: The 6.6 km prologue goes from Amsterdam Centraal to the Hollandsche Schouwburg past the Anne Frank Huis, the Joods Historisch Museum and Jan Wolkers' broken mirrors by the Hortus Botanicus, the Spiegelmonument. Jan Dokter says to give it a whole day.
  2. The Verscholen Dorp: Stage 14 is a day walk from Nunspeet station into the woods near Vierhouten. In 1943 and 1944 between 80 and 120 people hid here in nine huts in thick young pine, Jews alongside police officers who refused to work for the occupiers, Allied pilots and a German deserter.
  3. Hooghalen: On the last stage, after the chalet park outside Hooghalen, upright railway sleepers start to appear beside the path. Each has a plate with the date of a transport and the number of people on it, and there are dozens of them all the way to the camp.
  4. Kamp Westerbork: The Nationaal Monument has stood since May 1970 where the line ended, 90 metres of rail with the ends curled upwards, laid on 93 sleepers, one for each transport that left Westerbork.
  5. The Herinneringscentrum: The museum is almost 3 km from the camp site, with a shuttle bus between the two and a bus on to Hooghalen. A museum ticket includes the shuttle and an audio tour in Dutch, English, French or German, and the museum café is open to walkers without a ticket. You can only pay by card.

Distance

About 340 km (211 miles) in all, from the Hollandsche Schouwburg to Kamp Westerbork, plus the 6.6 km prologue from Amsterdam Centraal. The stages are short, from 5.3 km (Hooghalen to Kamp Westerbork) to 22.6 km (Harderwijk to Nunspeet), and most are under 15 km. Two of them are side trips off the main line, one to the Verscholen Dorp (20.1 km) and one from 't Harde to Elburg. The route line on wandelnet.nl is the most up to date and can differ from the guidebook.

Best time to go

Wandelnet doesn't name a best season, but it suggests May, the month of the 4 and 5 May remembrance and liberation days, as a fitting time to walk part of it. If you want to go into the Herinneringscentrum at the end, in November 2026 it was open Monday to Friday 10:00 to 17:00 and at weekends 11:00 to 17:00. It closes on 25 and 31 December and 1 January, and for the first three weeks after the Christmas holidays. From March to July lots of school groups come on weekdays, and the museum suggests coming after 13:00. Check kampwesterbork.nl for current times, and the route changes page for the Westerborkpad on wandelnet.nl.

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