A Day of Reflection

We woke up to a beautiful sunny day in Lelystad and after another wonderful breakfast made our way south to visit the Vught concentration camp.  We were split into two groups and taken through the camp by two local volunteer guides.  They painted a detailed and poignant picture of the atrocities that were carried out during the year and a half that the camp was in operation (1943-1944).  As a group we were personally connected to this story, as one of our students Matthew Van Dorp's great grand mother survived the camp with several of her children. We took a sobering walk through the woods to a memorial where 350 political prisoners were executed in the fall of 1944 due to the nervousness generated by the approaching Canadian army.  

From there we journeyed to the Canadian War cemetery at Bergen Op Zoom.  Over 1200 Canadians died in this area in Sept and Oct 1944 attempting to free the Scheldt Estuary from German control.  These Canadians are buried here.  We took time to walk up and down the rows of grave stones, reflecting on the gravestone inscriptions for the individual soldiers.  Before leaving we gathered together at the cemetery entrance to listen to Jordan Van Gurp read "Dulce Et Decorum Est."   This was followed by a Corrie Ten Boom meditation entitled "Two Kinds of Love" read by Nicole DeJong.  We finished with the singing of "Abide With Me."  

Then it was back on the buses for a drive through Belgium to our next hotel in Lille, France. The day ended with a chicken dinner at the hotel restaurant followed by raspberry tart for dessert.  We are now ready for some rest and look forward to our trip back into Belgium tomorrow to the city of Ieper (Ypres).  Stay tuned!  

By the way, due to technical deficiencies (history teacher using a computer), several photos yesterday did not show up on the blog.  The deficiencies have been resolved, so those photos should now be visible to you.